


Rick’s Little Girl

by Gallavich1012



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Romance, Sexual Content, Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-19
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:48:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 25,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24811837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gallavich1012/pseuds/Gallavich1012
Summary: The world ended months ago and Jessica feels like theres no hope. She lost her dad, Rick, and now her mother was shacking up with his best friend. She really misses her dad but the hot hunter with piercings blue eyes makes her feel better.(ON HIATUS)
Relationships: Daryl Dixon/Original Female Characters, Rick Grimes/Lori Grimes (past), Rick Grimes/Michonne (future)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 27





	1. Chapter 1

"Jess! Jessica Ann!!! Stop!"

Jess spun around angrily coming face to face with her mother, Lori, who was hastily buttoning up her shirt, followed by Shane pulling in his own.

"What Lori? Scared that I saw you fucking Dad's best friend? God. He's been dead all of two seconds and you're already turning into a slut-"

"Hey don't speak to your mother that way!" Shane shouted, taking a step forward. 

"You can't tell me what to do, you're not my father and she is not my mother." Jess growled angrily pointing at Lori.

Before either of them could say anything else, Jess turned and stomped off, not wanting to be around either of them anymore. Once she was back at camp, shd make a beeline straight for Daryl's tent farthest from camp. She spotted him sitting on a tree stump fiddling with his crossbow. Daryl noticed movement and looked up, standing when he saw the anger on her face. He was confused but before he could ask what was wrong she was already wrapping her arms around him and burying her face in his chest.

"Was goin' on?" He asks, holding her against him.

She huffed against his chest trying to fight back angry tears, only she wasn't just angry, she was pissed, hurt, and sad. She looked up at Daryl pulling away slightly before looking away again.

"I caught my mom and Shane fucking in the woods." She told him quietly, her bottom lip trembling slightly as Daryl pulled her back into his chest.

Jess has talked to him many times about how close she was with her dad, they were best friends, they would always hang out and since she was a kid, they did everything together. Unlike Lori and Jess who always butted heads and never got along. She always felt like Lori resented her because she had her so young because she has no problems with her younger brother, Carl. Jess sighed and pulled away once again but stayed in Daryl's arms and looked up at him.

"Sorry for being so, I’d not know,” She trailed off not knowing what to say.

"Hey, none of that. Ya know ya can always talk to me, darlin'. I would be upset if I was in yer position, too." She smiled as he spoke, leaning up on her tiptoes, kissing him softly.

"Thanks, Dare. It's just so frustrating. I mean he's literally been gone for a few months and she's already moved on. How is that even possible? I know they were having issues before he was shot, but fuck. Maybe she never even loved him." As she said quietly, Daryl moved to sit on the edge of his tent and she leaned her head on his shoulder.

"Why don'tcha come hunting with me this evening, yeah? Get away from here for a little while, be back in the morning." She didn’t say anything in response just nodded her head and scooted closer to him. 

“Hey, Dare?” Jess asked softly as they walked through the woods. They ended up camping out in an old shack last night and now they were trying to track a buck. 

“Yeah, darlin’?” He asked, looking sideways at her but the two still moving. 

“You think it’s possible for the world to go back to the way it was?” She asked, and Daryl stayed quiet for I minute. 

“Honestly, no. I mean it would be great to have a cure or somethin’ for the geeks but as far as the way the world functioned and everything was shit,” Daryl shrugged and Jess nodded slowly. 

“What ‘bout you?” He asked, this time she was silent for a moment. 

“I agree. I wish my dad was hear and even though I had a pretty good life I just, I dunno, I wasn’t happy. I dunno if I could say this world makes me happy, but I found you,” She said quietly and Daryl stopped walking, turning around to face her. 

“The only good thing ‘bout this world is that it gave ya to me,” He agreed, grabbing her face and leaning down to kiss her. 

"Well, ya wanna go 'head and head back? I'm gonna track this deer, might take a another day or so," Daryl   
said pulling away from the kids, his arm sliding around her waist to pull her close. 

"Yeah, but only cause I promised Carl I wouldn't be gone long." She said after a moment faking a pout at leaving him.

"Ya know imma be back in a couple of days, darlin'." He says chuckling at her pout but leaning down to kiss her again. After exchanging a few more sweet kisses and going their separate ways, she started slowly making her way back to camp. She had a good ways to walk but she wasn't very eager to be confronted by her mother again.

In the few months she had known Daryl he had been teaching her to hunt and track which she caught on to fairly quickly. It surprisingly didn't take long for Daryl to warm up to her seeing as he's still cold towards the rest of the group, but she couldn't blame him they all treated him like an outsider even though he was their main source of food and she was the only one to ever thank him for it. They had become close friends, confiding in each other about the world and seeking comfort in one another before admitting their feelings for each other. 

As she started nearing camp, she noticed that there new vehicles which meant the group that traveled to Atlanta for supplies was back. She approached the tree line and what she saw made her stop dead in her tracks. Her dad was crouched down talking to Carl smiling with Lori standing next to them. Lori looked up catching Jess’ eye, and her eyes filled with tears. Lori gave her daughter a tight smile patting Rick on the shoulder and pointing towards her. Jess slowly walked from the trees as he quickly turned towards her. 

"Daddy?" She call out and beforeshe could think anything else she was running towards him and throwing herself into his arms. Rick held her tightly as she cry against his chest.

"Sh, it's okay, baby girl. I'm here. It's alright." He whispers gently swaying slightly. Jess lift her head to rest her chin on his shoulder still hugging him and look between Shane and Lori giving them both a disgusted look before pulling back and looking at Rick. 

"I can't believe you're here, I thought-" She trailed off not wanting to say it.

"I know, you had a right to think that. I was still in a coma up until just a few days ago." He said, petting her hair and all she can think is how lucky they are that he found them. 

"Well," He starts, giving her this look, "I hear you're dating someone, hm?" Jess roll her eyes at him playfully slapping his arm, that would be the first thing he asked about. 

"I don't know if dating is exactly the right word but yeah, his names Daryl." She said as she looked up at hum smiling brightly before they headed over to sit and catch up on everything that's happened.

They were just thankful to be back together.


	2. Chapter 2

"Disoriented. Fear and confusion; all of those thing but disoriented come closest." Jess listen to Rick speak as she sit next to him with Lori on his other side and Carl leaned against his chest. The four of them wanting to be close after being apart so long.

"I felt like I'd been ripped out of my life and put somewhere else. For a while I thought I was trapped in some coma dream, something I might not ever wake up from." Jess looked down, picking at her ripped jeans, she would have been terrified to wake up alone in this world.

"Mom said you died." Carl's voice was sosmall, he looked up at Rick, and Jess had to fight off the urge to scoff.

"She had every reason to believe that, don't you ever doubt it." He told Carl and Jess silently shake her head when she saw Shane and Lori make eye contact from across the fire.

"When things started to get really bad, they told me at the hospital that they were gonna medevac you and the other patients to Atlanta, and it never happened." Lori explains quietly.

"Well, I'm not surprised after Atlanta fell and from the look of that hospital it got overrun." Rick said, feeling Jess cringe as she remembering the military going in and killing everyone at the hospital.

"Yeah, looks don't deceive I barely got them out, you know?" This time Jess didn’t hold back and scoffed at Shane, standing up and walking away ignoring when Rick called out to her. 

She decide to go sit in Daryl's tent wanting to be as far away from everyone as possible, though still in earshot. After a few moments her ears perk up at the mention of Daryl and Merle. 

"Has anyone give any thought to Merle Dixon. Jessica said he should be back tomorrow from his hunting trip, he won't be happy to hear his brother was left behind." Dale finishes.

"I'll tell him. I dropped the key. It's on me." 

"I'm the one that cuffed him." Rick shook his head. 

"Look, guys, it's not a competition. I don't mean to bring race into this, but it might sound better coming from a white guy." Glennsaid, causing Jess to frown they really do think Daryl is just like Merle. Daryl would be angry but it has nothing to do with race when it comes to him.

"We could lie..."

"Or tell the truth." Andrea speaks above her sister as Jess slowly inched her way closer to the fire to hear better. "Merle was out of control. Something had to be done or he would have gotten us killed. And if Merle got left behind, it is nobody's fault but Merle's."

"And that's what we tell Daryl? I don't see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you?" Dale shrugged, "Word to the wise we're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt."

"Why- why don't we ask Jess to do it? She’s the only person he listens to and who can calm him down, we’ve all seen it, " That was the last straw, hearing Lori speak and watching most of the group nod in agreement. 

"Yeah, I'm not fucking doing that." Jess spat, everyone's eyes snapping towards her. She huffed before stomping off to Daryl's tent once again, laying in the makeshift bed of covers and breathing in his scent.

"Jess, baby?" Rick called out, hearing nothing but a mumbled response as he stuck his head into the tent. 

"I not telling Daryl."

"And I'm not asking you to. I wanna know what's going on with you and your mother." He says sitting down by his daughter. She avoid his eye contact and push herself into seated position. 

"You should ask mom, I really don't need her jumping down my throat..." Jess trailed off as Rick walked into the tent. 

"C'mon, you know you can talk to me, we always tell each other everything." Tears of frustration well up in her eyes and he watched as she angrily wiped them away with the back of her hand. 

"Dad...ugh, God. She- her and-...God, Daddy. Her and Shane slept together..." She finally managed to get it out, she couldn't believe she actually said it but one look at her dad's face and she regretted it instantly.

He sat there looking at her with a dumbfounded look of shock. Eyes wide, jaw hanging low looking like he just was slapped in the face. His wife and his best friend have been sleeping together? 

"Your mother and Shane...how long?" He asked, jaw now clenched tightly.

"As far as I know at least since we've been here, she swears it never happen before but I honestly don't know what to believe." Jess broke eye contact once again, but noticed him slowly nodding his head.

"I think I'm gonna go get ready for bed." He says quietly, voice hard, standing up and taking a step towards the tent opening. 

"Dad!" She call out to stop him before he walked out and she hurried over to him.

“I'm sorry..." She whispered, his face soften before he pulled her into a hug and kissed her head. 

"You got nothing' to be sorry for, sweetheart. Goodnight, I love you." He pulls away kissing her head once again. 

"Love you more." She say quietly, he gave her a small smile at the words that felt like forever since the last time he heard them. 

After one more hug he turned to walk away and she crawl back in the tent, slipping on one of Daryl's shirts and lying down, falling fast asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Jess woke up late in the afternoon the next day, and decided to actually get dressed. As she was tucking my knife into my belt, I heard a loud cry immediately recognizing it as Carl. I ran toward the sound stopping when he and Sophia emerged from the woods followed by Lori and Carol. Carl ran to her when he spotted his sister and wrapped his arms around her. 

"What happened? Are you hurt?" Jess ask, crouching in front of him. 

“Yeah, I’m okay,” He nodded and after being sure he was actually okay she walked him back over where Sophia was currently sitting with her mom. 

A few moments later Daryl came walking out the woods and she smile at him as he makes his way to her but her smile starts to falter when he called for Merle. The other part of the group emerging seconds later when Daryl called out for Merle again. 

“Daryl, just slow up a bit. I need to talk to you." Daryl's eyes quickly flick to her and back to Shane as the other man speaks.

"About what?" He asks gruffly noticing the whole group not so subtly looking at the two. 

"About Merle. There was a problem in Atlanta." Daryl slightly tense up at that as his eyes darting to Jess once more, the sympathetic look in her eye making his stomach twist. 

"He dead?" Daryl asks voice even but slowly shifting his weight around, a nervous tick he’s had since he was a kid. 

"Were not sure." Shane says making eye contact with Daryl.

"He either is or he ain't!" Daryl shouted angrily.

"No easy way to say this, so I'll just say it." Jess’ eyes shift away from Daryl when she heard Rick speak.

"Who are you?"

"Rick Grimes." Daryl's eyes meet Jess’ once and she gave him a tiny nod before he looked back at the man. 

"Rick Grimes, ya got somethin' ya wanna tell me?" Daryl asked angrily. 

"Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him on a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there." Rick explained talking calmly but he could see how tense the other man was. He looked toward his daughter, her eyes fixed on him. 

"Hold on. Lemme process this. Yer sayin' ya handcuffed my brother to a roof, and ya left him there?" By the time he finished speaking Daryl's voice had raised in volume no doubt due to the anger. 

"Yeah." Rick confirms simply. Daryl's face twist up in anger before he threw the string of squirrels towards Rick, Shane is tackling him to the ground when he took a step forward. Hess decide to step in seeing as Daryl was about to reach for his knife. 

"Daryl, stop." She said softly quickly kneeling in front of him. 

"Baby..." She whispers, catching his eye, reaching out and gently touching his face and he gives her a small nod and stops struggling against Shane. Daryl stood offering Hess his hand to help her up. She noticed Rick watching them and she stayed by Daryl's side. 

After Rick agreed to go back and help get Merle, Lori storms into the RV and Daryl and Jess walk away to the tent. Daryl plops down on the blankets, laying on his back and sighing heavily. 

"I don't want ya to go with us," Daryl said quietly as Jess slipped out of her shoes. She just hummed in response, not really caring, knowing Rick probably wouldn’t let her go away. 

She smirk to herself, taking her knife out of her belt and laying it down before slowly crawling over to Daryl and straddling his lap. She nuzzled her head into the crook of his neck nibbling on the skin there when his hands slid up to her hips. 

The two hadn’t gotten to be extremely intimate with each other, other than heavy make out sessions and occasionally dry humping each other like horny teenagers. Truth be told even though she was in her twenties she was still a virgin and she had an inkling Daryl was too or at least hadn't been with many women at all. They had talked about Jess never having had sex before but hardly ever discussed him usually because he changed the subject first. But times like this it didn't matter because any time she trailed kissed up his neck, along his jawline or grind her hips down onto his sne would get little grunts and moans in response building her confidence every time, especially now when she could feel his erection through his jeans pressing against her as she grind in his lap causing her to moan. 

"Jess, fuck," He breathed against her ear, causing her to moan again, grinding her hips down a little harder when she felt one of his hands travel up to her breast. 

Jess reach down and pulled her tank top over her head leaving her in a black bra and panties, but Daryl decidesd to go ahead and get rid of the bra unclipping it and tossing it to the side. Rolling her onto her back, leaving wet kisses along her jaw and neck, stubble scratching her skin before kissing right between her breasts. His hand slowly traveling down her body as he kisses her neck, rubbing her through her panties. 

"Hey, Daryl were ready when- aw fuck!" Jess’ eyes widen hearing Rick’s voice. Daryl rilled off of her as she quickly threw a hand out and put on the first t-shirt she found as Daryl adjusted the boner in his pants. 

"What do you need, Dad?" Jesd call out feeling the blush on her cheeks and she swear Daryl was smirking but couldn’t bring herself to look at him. 

"Came to get Daryl. We got the truck ready to go." He called out, scratching at the back of his head awkwardly. 

"Yea, I'm comin'." Daryl gruffly replied, hearing Rick shuffling away, he turned to Jess a smirk on his face.

"We'll finish this when I get back, Darlin'." He rumbled, kissing her before both of them stood up. She pulled her jeans and boots on before linking hands with him and walking out. 

She felt her cheeks heat up again when she met her dad’s eyes where he was standing talking to Shane. His eyes were lit up in amusement but she had to look away feeling like she was literally going to explode from embarrassment. 

"Hey, I’m gonna be back tonight, okay? " He said kissing her again before hopping into the truck. 

"Be safe." 

"I always am, darlin'," He grinned down at her. 

She said a goodbye to the other guys giving her dad a hug and kiss as well before they were speeding off down the road.


	4. Chapter 4

The events of the day were quite exhausting. First Daryl finding out about Merle and a group leaving to go rescue him, then Shane beating the living hell out of Ed for hitting his wife and then Jim coming unhinged and freaking people out. Jess choose to eat her dinner in her tent not feeling up to being around everyone but making sure to thank Amy and Andrea who caught the fish for them 

She was thankful to hear talking and laughing as everyone was gathered around the fire. She thought about going out she just really didn't want to be with the group, so after she ate her dinner she laid back letting herself relax hoping Daryl would be home soon. She nearly jump out of her skin when she heard a shriek coming from outside followed by panicked yelling. She didn't have time to put her boots on so she just grabbed her knife and ran out barefoot, shocked to see how many walkers were in camp.

Jess’ eyes immediately seeking out Carl first as she kill the dead one closest to her. Once she saw him safe with her mom and Shane she was instantly relieved. She looked for Sophia next, quickly running to her and Carol who were unarmed and alone.

"Follow close behind me, okay? I'm gonna help you get to the RV." She said quickly, Carol nodded and holding Sophia close as they made their way as quickly as possible to the RV where she left her with Lori.

She heard a strangled cry, turning to see one of the younger women that was in the group being bitten. She put down the walkers around her before gently lowering her to the ground and putting the knife through her skull. She was making her way back to the RV, taken by surprise when a walker stumbled out of know where knocking her to the ground causing her knife to slide from her hand and out of reach.

She hear Lori call out her name as she hit the ground but all she could think about is keeping this thing's teeth as far from her as possible. She had one arm against its neck pushing its head upwards and flailing her arm out to try to locate her knife, tears of frustration filled her eyes clouding her vision. 

Suddenly, the weight of the walker was heavier then gone all at once and she finally let out a choked breath she didn't know she was holding when Daryl hauled her up by the waist. 

“Ya okay?” He asked quickly, checking her as fast as he could for bites or scratches before pushing her behind him as he shot the geeks. 

When the gunfire died down she pull Daryl into a hug and he held her tightly for a moment before she let go to check on her family. As she made her way to the RV Lori rushed forward hugging her. They may have their differences and she may be a bitch but she was still her mom. When they pulled away she was then engulfed in a bear hug from both Rick and Carl.

"I was so worried when I saw that walker on you, but Daryl beat me to you." Rick says with a weak smile.

However, the almost happy moment is broken when a heart-wrenching sob echoed through the camp. When Jess’ eyes find the source, her eyes instantly fill with tears again. Next to the RV was Andrea kneeling over Amy's bloody, lifeless body and she positive that's who she heard scream earlier. She stumble back only to be met with a broad chest and two strong arms that instantly wrap around her body before leading her away from the scene.

When they got back in the tent, she ripped the blood soaked shirt from her body, Daryl silently handing her one of his bigger shirts. Once it was on, she slipped her jeans off and crawled under the covers. Daryl laid beside her pulling her gently into his side so her head rested on his chest.

"I gotcha, darlin', get some rest." He whispers placing a soft kiss on her head.

Jess woke up a few hours later, blinking her eyes slowly. It was still dark outside probably just a few hours to sunrise, nuzzling her head into Daryl's neck, feeling him tighten his arms around her.

"Mornin'." His raspy voice speaks quietly.

"Good morning." She whisper back kissing his neck lightly. 

His breath even back out soon enough and she knew he was back asleep. She scooted impossibly closer to him wanting to be a physically close as possible. After laying there for a moment, she let herself relax against Daryl, breathing in his scent. She buried her face in his neck once again before letting herself drift off back to sleep.

Today they would be headed to the CDC. There was some debate between Rick and Shane but seeing as the CDC was closest and possibly their chance to get any information on what this is the group all decided on going there instead.

After they buried all of their group members and burned the rest of the walkers they headed out, saying goodbye to Morales and his family who decided to try to locate some of their family members in a different direction. 

About half way to the CDC, they pulled over for a break and Jim asked to be left behind, explaining that the ride was too hard on his body and he was ready for it to end. So, after everybody said their goodbye's to him they left him with a gun they were back on the road.

Jess rode with Daryl in his truck; the ride was silent for the most part other than occasional conversation or teasing each other. She would kiss on his neck, rubbing him through his pants while he pulled her hair or grabbed her thigh. Of course they knew now wasn't the time to get each other riled up but it was something to take their mind off of everything. .

They could see the CDC up ahead and as they rolled to a stop. Jess had to compose herself before getting out, it was worse than she thought, the smell was absolutely horrid with decaying bodies scattered all about, littered with maggots and flies. Jess held her knife in her hand even though none of these bodies were moving. As Daryl and Jess walked, close side by side her eyes search for Carl. Satisfied when she saw him hand in hand with Lori following closely behind Rick. Her heart nearly stopping when she saw the big metal door shut over the entrances. Rick and Shane trying to get them to open, pulling and pounding on them.

"Walkers!" Daryl says gruffly, arrow already taking downthe walker closest, but multiple more slowly stumbling in their direction. 

"Dad, we cant be here were too close to the city and its getting dark." His eyes shift from his daughter to Lori and she can tell he was trying to be calm but he was panicked as well. 

The next few minutes fly by and non of them could hardly process what happened. As they were all getting ready to run back to the cars, Rick swore he saw the camera move and that someone was inside the building. He was yelling towards the building and thankfully he did because the next thing they knew the big metal door is sliding open.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sexual Content. Daryl has a dirty mouth.

"Did he say hot water?" Carol asks and Jess smiled brightly up at Daryl. 

After Jenner let them in and gave them something to eat he showed them to the living area where they all got their own rooms. Daryl and Jess took the one farthest down the hall and started to settle in before heading to the showers. 

"Oh my god." Jess groaned out when the hot water finally hit her body. She opened her eyes to see Daryl standing there watching her, undressed as well. She crooked her finger in his direction, beckoning him forward, sighing when he got closer. Sliding his arms around her waist and pulling their bodies flush against each other. .

His hands slowly slide up and down her back causing her to shiver even in the warm water. One hand coming to tangle in her hair as he gently tipped her head back to softly kiss her neck. Normally when they had intimate moments they were rushed but here they were alone and able to take their time which she much preferred. Jess gasped, caught off guard when Daryl bit down on her collarbone, but moaning when he started to suck at the spot, soothing the stinging there.

Jess could feel his erection slide against her belly as he held her tightly. A moan escaping her lips when she felt his hand ease up the inside of her thigh. When did his hand even get there? Her hands slid up into his hair, tightening on the strands as his hand got closer. Jess pushed her hips down trying to get him to touch her faster but instead he pulled his hand away and roughly pinned her hips to the wall. 

"Uh uh, ya know better than that." Daryl growled directly against her ear, voice rough and raspy. 

"Need you..." She whispered, on the verge of begging.

"Need me to what, Darlin'?" He asks, nipping at her ear lobe. 

"To- to touch me Dare, please, please touch me." She begged, pushing against his hands, knowing her hips would bruise from his grasp but she really didn't care because now his hand was back between her thighs and he was shoving his tongue into her mouth.

"Ya know I love it when ya beg for me. Such a good girl, huh?" Jess nod her head quickly letting out a loud moan when he roughly pushed a finger into her. She loved how dominant Daryl was in bed. It has caught her off guard at first until she realized how much she loved hearing him talk dirty. 

Daryl slowly slid his finger out, rubbing up and down her wet slit and circling her clit a few times before pushing in two fingers, slowly pulling out and pushing back in hard and rough, imitating how he would make love to her. Jess can't help but imagine how it would feel if it were his cock. Truth be told when they got caught up in the moment she’d come close to begging him to fuck her but she always stopped herself cause she was scared. Not scared of Daryl of course, he would never hurt her, that is unless she wanted him to, just nervous she wouldn’t be good enough for him. 

Jess pulled from her thoughts when Daryl crooked his fingers upwards rubbing against her sweet spot and he watched her eyes pop open, blue eyes meeting blue eyes. 

"Ya like that darlin'? Does it feel good?" He asked, keeping her gaze the whole time, and all she could do is nod her head.

Daryl watched her head fall back against the tile behind her, watching him through hooded eyes as he pulled his fingers out, reaching for his dick to slide it against her wet lips. She feels it slip through the folds. When he pulled back, the tip would rub against her clit as he picked up the pace, Jess felt herself getting close. She gripped onto his shoulder and whimpered out his name.

"C'mon baby, I gotcha. Cum on my dick with that pretty lil' pussy." The dirty words have her doing just that.

Daryl felt her thighs shake as she clawed at his shoulders and pulled his hair and moaned out his name while he held her tightly. He came seconds later roughly moaning her name and felt his release on the inside of her thighs. They stood there for a minute holding and lazily kissing at each other's skin. 

Sadly, he pulled away reaching behind her before lathering her hair with shampoo and rinsing it for her and she returned the favor. After bathing each other Jess told Daryl she was going to hang back a second while he went on to the room. He assumed she was going to wander around but she was actually going to shave and surprise him, even though he doesn't care at all about her being hairy.

After she shaved, she slipped into Daryl's shirt, which was big enough to hang to her mid-thigh with a pair of sleep shorts Dr. Jenner supplied. As she was walking, she heard a door shut particularly hard and decided to do some investigating before heading back to Daryl. Nearing a room labeled as the rec room she stopped outside of the door hearing the muffled voices of her mom and Shane causing her to furrow her brow when Shane spoke. 

"How could you treat me like this?" 

"You're kidding me right?" Lori hisses at him angrily.

"No. Nope."

"Because you told me my husband was dead."

"Lori, I didn't lie alright. I didn't. Do you know what it was like there? Things were falling apart. They were killing everyone. There were walkers everywhere."

"So, you left him?"

"Everybody else ran. There were no doctors there. It was just me. He was hooked up to machines and I didn't know what to do. I even took my ear and I put it on his chest and I listened for a heartbeat and I did not hear one." Jess’ eyes teared up and remembered when Shane told them Rick was gone. She was angry and didn't believe him, guess she was right not to.

"There's no way he could have survived that." Shane spoke sounding hostile.

"But he did." Lori hissed back again.

"Yeah, but then I had y'all to think about, didn't I? I had you and Carl and Jess and I needed to think about-"

"Okay. No, no." Lori cut him off, her voice changing quickly and Jess changed my stance ready to intervene if she needed to. 

"No, just stop it. If you thought for one second that he was still alive, would you have come? No. So I saved your life, you and your kids. That's what I did." As Shane speaks, Jess’ hands shake angrily at his words.

"Look, I would have traded places with him. I would trade places with him right now because I Love you." Jess’ eyes widen at Shane's words wanting nothing more than to punch him in the face, Lori didn’t owe him anything. 

"No. No, you're drunk."

"And I know there's some things that say you love me too, because there's no way you could've been with me the way that you were."

"Shane. Shane, just stop. Stop!" Hearing how panicked her mom sounded snapped Jess.

As she walked in, her blood boiled at the sight before her. Shane had Lori backed up where she wouldn't move and was trying to get his hand under her shirt as she tried pushing him away. She lunged forward, her petite body forcefully making contact with his body as she pushed him away with all of her strength. 

"Don't you ever lay a hand on my mother again! Do you understand? What do you think my dad would do if he found out about this, huh?" Shane's eyes were wide in surprise both because of how forcefully sge attacked him and her threat.

His wide eyes soon narrowed to slits, roughly pushing her away causing her to fall to the ground and hit her head on a table and she could feel blood trickling down her head. She look back up in time to see Lori slap Shane, leaving three long claw marks on his neck. Jess quickly stood up as he stormed out and rushed to her mom. 

"Are you okay? Did he hurt you?" Jess ask quickly, hugging her and letting go. 

“Yes, are you okay?” Lori asked, pulling back to check her daughter's head. 

“I’m fine, I’ll get Daryl to bandage me up,” She reassured her mom. 

"You can't tell your father about this. Promise me? He can't know." As she spoke her voice got lower as it cracked like she's about to cry. Jess only nodded so she'll calm down.

"If anything like this happens again I will tell him, hear me? Shane has no right to treat you that way or to put his hands on you." Lori just silently nodded but she saw the tears welling up in her mom's eyes. They pull her into a hug before walking her back to her room. Still fuming when she walks away to go to her own room.

“Hey, darlin’, fing anything interesting- what the fuck happened to your head?” Daryl asked, cutting himself off and practically jumping off the bed as she walked over. His hands instantly caressing her face, gently tuning it so he could get a better look at the gash in her head. 

“Shane,” She said quietly. 

“Shane did this to ya?” Daryl asked, his voice dangerous. 

“Yeah, but please don’t do anything, will you just patch me up?” She asked looking down at her feet. 

“Hey, as much as I wanna go beat his ass I won’t, alright? Are ya okay?” He asked his thumb running along her jaw. 

“ I’m okay, I just wanna be with you,” She sighed, leaning her head forward to rest against his chest. 

“I’m right here, darlin’.”


	6. Chapter 6

"Few people ever got to see this." Dr. Jenner spoke to the group the next morning. They were all gathered in the big room after eating breakfast. Dale asks him for some kind of explanation which led them to being here.

"Is that a brain?" Carl asks, looking up at the scan in front of them. 

"Yes, an extraordinary one." He says and Jess could see Carl kind of smile. "Not that it matters in the end." He says quietly turning from Carl back to the screen.

"Take us in for EIV."

"Enhanced Internal View." The robotic voice echoed as it zoomed in closely. So close that all they could see are little flashes of light dancing through the brain. 

"What are those lights?" Jess ask, leaning against Daryl's side.

"It's a person's life; experiences, memories. Its everything. Somewhere in all that organic wiring, all those ripples of light, is you. The thing that makes you unique and human. Those are synapses, electric impulses in the brain that carry all the messages. They determine everything a person says, does or thinks from the moment of birth to the moment of death." Jenner explains as they watch the scan.

"Death? That's what this is, a vigil?" Rick asks stepping forward. 

"Yes. Or rather the playback of the vigil."

"This person died?" Andrea asks quietly sounding sad, "Who?"

"Test subject 19. Someone who was bitten and infected and volunteered to have us record the process. VI, scan forward to the first event." A new scan was shown on the screen, the brain much darker this time, very little light left and there was a sad feeling watching it. 

"It invades the brain like meningitis. The adrenal glands hemorrhage, the brain goes into shutdown, then the major organs. Then Death." He says solemnly and everyone is quiet for a moment. 

"Everything you ever were or will be...gone."

Andrea looked down, they all lost someone but the death of her younger sister was still fresh so the group understood that this was hard on her.

"Is that what happened to Jim?" Sophia asks meekly looking up at Carol, who nodded answering with a quiet 'yes'.

"She lost somebody two days ago." Jess said, noticing the way Jenner looks at Andrea confused. "Her sister."

"I lost somebody too. I know how devastating it is." Jenner says making eye contact with her for a moment.

"VI, scan to the second event. The resurrection times vary wildly. We had reports of it happening in as little as three minutes. The longest we heard of was eight hours." Jenner explains as the next scan loads. When it finally comes up the brain is completely black, no lights whats so ever. In the case of this patient, it was two hours, one minute, seven seconds." Jess watched and listen to Jenner speak, who ever this patient was they were important to him. When her eyes flicker back to the screen there are small red flickers in the bottom of the brain.

"It restarts the brain?" Lori asked no one able to take their eyes away from the screen.

"No, just the brain stem. Basically, it gets them up and moving."

"But they're not alive?" Rick asks.

"You tell me." Jenner says motioning to the screen. 

"It's nothing like before. Most of that brain is dark."

"Dark, lifeless, dead. The frontal lobe, the neocortex, the human part; that doesn't come back. The you part. Just a shell, driven by mindless instinct." Daryl's tightened his around Jess as Jenner spoke. Suddenly there's a bright ripple leaving a gaping tunnel in the skull.

"God. What was that?" Carol asks.

"He shot his patient in the head. Didn't you?" Andrea asks looking at Jenner.

"VI, power down the main screen and the workstations."

"You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea asked again. 

"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal-"

"Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui added. 

"Yes, there is that."

Andrea and Rick talked back and forth with Jenner a while longer. The rest of them standing in silence just listening until Dale speaks up. 

"Dr. Jenner I know this has been taxing for you and I hate to ask one more question, but that clock its counting down. What happens at zero." He asked. 

"The basement generators, they run out of fuel." Jenner says but it's obvious he isn't saying everything.

"And them?" Rick questioned him farther.

"VI, what happens when the power runs out?" Jess called out when Jenner didn’t answer.

"When the power tuns out, facility-wide decontamination will occur." The voice speaks out.

Jenner just walked off not saying anything else to them. Rick, Daryl, Shane, Glenn and T- Dogg all went to the basement to check out the generators and find out what they could. Lori and Jess went upstairs with Carl and everyone else went to their rooms.

"Jess? Is something wrong?" Lori asked and Carl looked up at his sister. 

"Um, nothing. It's just the air conditioner stopped. " she said looking at them. They walked out of the room and everyone else were sticking their heads out too. 

"Why is the air off, and the lights in our room?" Carol asked Jenner as he walked down the hall with a bottle of whiskey.

"Energy use is being prioritized." He said taking a swig from the bottle.

"Air isn't a priority and lights?" Dale asked as they all started following Jenner.

"It's not up to me, zone 5 is shutting itself down."

"What the hell does that mean?" Jess asked.

Rick, Daryl, Glenn, Shane and T-Dogg came running in from another door down stairs as Jess was trying to get Jenner to tell them what the hell was going on. 

"Rick?" Lori called out. 

"Jenner, what's happening?" Rick asked as Jenner reached the bottom of the stairs. Jedd made her way to Daryl grabbing his had, they continued to follow Jenner and Rick to the room where they were earlier.

"The system is dropping all the nonessential uses of power. It's designed to keep computers running to the last possible second. That started as we approached the half-hour mark. Right on schedule." He said pointing to the clock on the wall that read '00:31:28'.

"It was the French." He said walking up the stairs.

"What?" Andrea asked.

"They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know. While our people were bolting out the doors and committing suicide in the hallways, they stayed in the labs till the end. They thought they were close to a solution."

"What happened?" Jess asked. 

"Same thing that's happening here. No power grid. Ran out of juice. The world runs on fossil fuel. I mean, how stupid is that?" He said walking away again.

"Let me tell you something-" Shane started. 

"Lori, grab our things. Everyone get your stuff. We're getting out of here now." Rick said turning to his group. They all turned to try and leave when a loud alarm started blaring. 

"What is that?" Jess heard Carl's quiet voice ask. 

"30 minutes to decontamination." The automated voice spoke as a large count down appeared on the screen. Jenner walked over to one of the computers not speaking to them. 

"Doc, whats going on?" T-Dogg called out.

"Everybody, y'all heard Rick. Get your stuff and let's go. Go now." Shane yelled but before they could make it to the door they closed.

"Did you just lock us in?" Glenn asked worriedly. 

"Carl." Lori yell running back over and pulling Carl into her arms. Daryl ripped his hand from Jess’ running towards Jenner. 

"You son of a bitch." 

"Shane!" Rick yelled pointing to Daryl. 

"You locked us in here!" Daryl yelled.

"No, stop. Don't." Shane yelled grabbing Daryl as he grabbed Jenner pulling him away. 

"Jenner open that door now." Rick said walking over. 

"There's no point. Everything topside is locked down. The emergency exits are sealed. " Jenner spoke calmly. 

"Well open the damn things." Daryl said angrily and Jess quickly made her way to him hoping to calm him down. 

"That's not something I control. The computers do. I told you once that front door closed, it wouldn't open again. You heard me say that. It's better this way."

"What is? What happens in 28 minutes?" Rick asked angrily turning back to Jenner. 

"What happens?" Rick and Shane shout at the same time Jenner stood up turning to Rick. 

"You know what this place is. We protected the public from very nasty stuff." Jenner yelled turning to look at them. "Weaponized small pox! Ebola strains that could wipe out half the country! Stuff you don't want getting out ever! In the event of a catastrophic power failure, in a terrorist attack for example, H.I.T.s are deployed to prevent any organisms from getting out."

"H.I.T.?" Rick asked.

"VI, define." Jenner said loudly.

"H.I.T.s, high-impulse thermobaric fuel-air explosives consists of a two-stage aerosol ignition that produces a blast wave of significantly greater power and duration than any other know explosive except nuclear. The vacuum pressure effect ignites the oxygen at between 5,000° and 6,000° and is useful when the greatest loss of life and damage to structure is desired." 

As VI was walking you could see the realization on everyone's faces at what would happen. Jedd brought her hand to her mouth trying not to cry.

"C'mere." Daryl said, pulling her into a hug with one hand on her head and she wrapped her arms around him tightly.

"It sets the air on fire. No pain." Jenner said simply. "An end to sorrow, grief, regret. Everything." 

Jesx pulled away from Daryl walking to her mom and hugging her tightly. Daryl and Shane were trying to break through the doors now with axes but it was useless. Carl and Sophia were crying, Lori and Carol held them. Jesd felt like her heart was going to rip itself from her chest and run away.

"You should've left well enough alone. It would've been so much easier." Jenner said.

"Easier for who?" Jesd asked angrily. 

"All of you. You know what's out there, a short brutal like and an agonizing death. Your sister, what was her name?" He said turning to Andrea. 

"Amy."

"Amy. You know what this does. You've seen it. Is that really what you want for your wife and children?" He said, turning his attention back to Rick. 

"I don't want this." He hissed looking at Jenner. 

"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher." Jenner said.

"Well, your head ain't." 

"Daryl!" Jess said quickly stepping in front of him, stopping him from going after Jenner again. 

"You do want this. Last night you said it was just a matter of time before everybody you loved was dead.” 

"Dad? You said that?" Lori and Jesd spoke at the same time. 

"I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?" Rick said looking between the two women. 

"There is no hope. There never was."

"There is always hope." Jesx said, stepping up by Rick’s side. 

"Maybe it won't be you, maybe not here, but somebody somewhere-"

"What part of everything is gone do you not understand?" Andrea asked. 

"Listen to your friend. She gets it. This is what takes us down. This is our extinction event." Jenner said sitting back down.

"This isn't right. You can't just keep us here." Carol cried. 

"One tiny moment, a millisecond. No pain." Jenner said simply.

"My daughter doesn't deserve to die like this." Carol stood up with Sophia.

"Wouldn't it be kinder, more compassionate to just hold your loved ones and wait for the clock to run down?" Jenner asked. There was the sound of a gun cocking as Shane walked over.

"Shane." Rick said, him and the other guys trying to stop Shane.

"Stay out of my way! Open the damn door, Jenner, or I'm gonna blow your head off do you hear me?" Shane yelled as she helped Lori and Carl up. Daryl pulled Jesx back and stepped forward. 

"Brother. This is not the way you do this. We will never get out of here." Rick said to Shane who was holding a shotgun to Jenner's head. 

"Shane, you listen to him." Lori called out. 

"He dies, we all die." Rick said, Shane yelled, shooting the gun at the nearby computers causing Carl and Sophia to start crying again. Rick fought with Shane to get the gun, hitting him with the butt and making him fall to the floor towering over him. 

"You done now? Are you done?" Rick asked looking down at his friend. 

"Yeah, I guess we all are." Shane said, looking at Rick from the floor.


	7. Chapter 7

Rick handed the gun to T-Dogg and looked over at his group before walking over to Jenner.

"I think you're lying." He said after a moment of silence. 

"What?" Jenner asked.

"You're lying. About no hope. If that were true, you'd have bolted with the rest or taken the easy way out. You didn't. You choose the hard path. Why?" Rick asked.

"It doesn't matter." Jenner replied. 

"It does matter. It always matters. You stayed when others ran. Why?"

"Not because I wanted to. I made a promise, to her. My wife." Jenner said point to the screen.

"Test subject 19 was your wife?" Jess asked. 

"She begged me to keep going as long as I could. How could I say no? She was dying. It should have been me on that table. I wouldn't have mattered to anybody. She was a loss to the world. Hell, she ran this place. I just worked here. In our field she was an Einstein. Me? I'm just Edwin Jenner. She could've done something about this. Not me."

"Your wife didn't have a choice. You do. That's all we want. A choice, a chance." Rick said, feeling his daughter step up to his side. 

"Let us keep trying as long as we can." Jess asked, Jenner met her eyes silently for a moment. 

"I told you topside is locked down. I can't open those." He pressed numbers into the key pad the the big door slid down.

As soon as the door opened they all started running out. Jess stayed behind Lori and Carol with the kids making sure none of them fell behind, Daryl right beside her. Jacqui and Andrea decided to stay behind and she didn't see Dale. Once they got up top the guys were trying anything and everything to get the doors open or bust the windows but nothing was working.

"Rick I have something that might help." Carol said, suddenly rushing over to Rick as she dug around in her purse. 

"Carol, I don't think a nail is fine if it's gonna help up." Jess rolled my eyes at Shane, no time was a bad time for him to be a dick apparently. But to Rick’s surprise she pulled out a grenade. Rick motioned for everyone to get back, everyone rushing behind the steps. 

Daryl grabbed Jess pulling her close and leaning over her to shield her with his body. Rick jumped down behind the stairs just in time for the loud blast of the grenade. Once again they all jumped up running out the building. Rick and Shane shoot at walkers as they run to the vehicles. Daryl grabbed Jess’ hand pulling her to his truck. She saw Lori, Rick and Carl get into the RV and a second later Dale and Andrea were coming out of the building. Rick honked the horn and Daryl pushed Jess down, covering her with his body again. There was a loud boom and the truck shook violently. After a second Daryl sat up slowly, he let out a heavy breath kissing her head. She looked over, there was nothing left of the CDC just fire and rubble. 

Their caravan had driven for about a day before stopping to try and siphon gas from some vehicles. They were down to Carol's station wagon, the RV and Daryl's bike. It was still a 125 mile drive to Fort Benning. Rick, Lori, Carol, Carl and Sophia were in the station wagon, Dale, Glenn, Andrea and Shane were in the RV and Jess was riding with Daryl on his bike. She looked over Daryl's shoulder as she approached a bunch of abandoned cars, it looked like whatever happened was a pile up and everyone abandoned the area. They led the RV and car through the car maze before Dale parked the RV. The front making a hissing noise and smoking. 

"I said it, didn't I say it? A thousand time. Dead in the water." Dale said walking to the front of the RV.

"Problem, Dale?" Shane asked. 

"Just the small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of- well that was dumb." Dale cut himself off looking around at all of the cars. 

"If you can't find a radiator hose here-"

"There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find." Daryl said going through the back of one of the cars.

"We can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start." T-Dogg said before walking off. 

"Maybe some water or food?" Carol suggested.

"This is a graveyard. I don't know how I feel about this." Lori said looking at the cars.

"Come on, y'all. Just look around. Gather what you can." Shane said. Daryl and Jess walked off together to look at the cars on the far end of the pile. 

They walked behind a large delivery truck, Daryl grabbing her hips as soon as they were out of eyesight, pushing her against the car and kissing her sweetly. She smiled up at him pushing up on her tiptoes to kiss him again, wrapping her arms around his neck. There was no immediate danger and they hadn't gotten a moment alone in a while so they just stayed there kissing for a minute. 

"Let's start looking for some stuff." She whispered kissing him one more time. He smiled down at her and couldn’t help himself, pressing a kiss to her lips before they separated. She walked to the car next to them and popped the trunk. 

There wasn't much. Jess found half a bottle of Motrin, some packaged tampons and a case of feminine wipes. She tossed all of it in the bag she had before moving to the next car. Again, there wasn't much, just a few small things they could use. She ended up finding some canned food, a jar of peanut butter, some women's clothes in her size and a bag full of protein bars. As soon as her book-bag was zipped she felt Daryl's arm wrap around her waist with his hand over her mouth, he pulled her behind the truck they were at earlier and slowly moved his hand from her mouth raising a finger to his lips and she furrowed her brow. He pointed to the window and her heart stopped. There was a heard of walkers. He gently pushed her down and motioned for her to get under the truck. She grabbed his wrist when he went to leave.

"Imma be right back. Need tah make sure everyone is safe." He whispered but hurried and left before she could respond. She had a hand over her mouth making sure she didn't let any noises escape. From where she was she could see Lori and Carol under one car and Carl and Sophia under the one across from them but she couldn't see anyone else. The walkers slowly started stumbling around the cars. They were just starting to pass by the car Carl was under and her breath caught in her throat. She couldn't see anyone anymore, there were too many walkers now.

They were slowly making their way to the truck she was under. She wanted to cry when Daryl hadn't come back or when she hadn't seen Rick. She was worried about everyone and there was nothing she could do to help any of them. There were so many, more than at the quarry the night they were attacked. Jess heard Sophia crying for help and it killed her that I couldn't go and help her. After what felt like forever the last one finally passed her and barely a minute later she saw Daryl running over to her and she quickly got out from under the truck hugging and giving him a quick kiss before they rushed to the rest of the group. Carl ran to her giving her a big hug but she didn’t miss the tears that filled his eyes. Jess’ heart breaking when she turned to Carol. 

"There's two walkers after my baby!" Carol cried as Lori held her to keep her from running into the forest.


	8. Chapter 8

Daryl is the only one of the group who is a real tracker so him, Jess, Glenn and Shane decided to go see if they could find Rick or Sophia if he hadn't found her yet and sadly when they found Rick he was alone.

"Ya sure this is tha spot?" Daryl asked, him and Rick standing in the muddy creek water. 

"I left her right here. I drew the walkers way off in the direction up the creek." Rick explained.

"Without a paddle, seems where we've landed."

"She was gone by the time I got back here. I figured she just took off and ran back to the group. I told her go that way and keep the sun on her left shoulder." Rick said looking around and Jess could heat the underlying panic in his voice. 

"Hey, short round, why don't you step off to one side? You're mucking up the trail." Daryl said looking at Glenn who tentatively stepped to the side. 

"Assuming she knows her left from her right." Shane said.

"Shane, she understood me fine."

"Dad, no offense but she's 12, she's young and scared. Even if she understood you in the moment she could have forgotten as soon as she was left alone." Jess tolk him, crouching down and reaching out to rest her hand on his shoulder. 

"Got clear prints right here." Daryl said pointing to the other side of the creek. 

"She did like ya said, headed back to the highway. Let's spread out, make our way back. She couldn't have gotten far." Daryl said hopping out of the creek. 

"Hey, we gonna find her. She'll be tuckered out hiding in a bush somewhere." Shane tried to reassure Rick before they followed Daryl, he crouched down furrowing his brow.

"She was doin’ just fine till right here. All she had to do was keep goin' straight, but she veered off that way." He said pointing off to the side. 

"Why would she do that?" Glenn asked. 

"Maybe she saw something that spooked her, made her run off." Shane suggested.

"A walker?" Glenn asked nervously. 

"I don't see any other footprints. Just hers." Daryl said scanning the ground around the tracks.

"So, what do we do? All of us press on?" Shane asked. 

"No, better if you and Glenn get back up to the highway. People are gonna start panicking. Let them know we're on her trail doing everything we can but most of all, keep everybody calm." Rick said, turning to Shane.

"I'll keep 'em busy scavenging cars. Think up a few other chores. I'll keep 'em occupied. Come on." He acknowledged Rick before him and Glenn headed back. 

The three followed the tracks for a while crossing paths with a walker. Rick caught its attention and Daryl shot it from behind, it fell to the ground and Rick crouched down by it looking at its hand.

"What are you looking for?" Daryl asked.

"There's skin under the nails." Rick replied, flipping the walker over and opening its mouth. "It fed recently. There's flesh caught in it's teeth." He said making a disgusted face. 

"Yeah, what kind of flesh?" Jess asked scrunching up her nose.

"Only one way to know for sure." Rick answered by pulling the walker's tattered shirt open and pulling his knife from his belt. 

"Here, I'll do it. How many kill you skin and gut in your life? Anyway, mines sharper." Daryl said standing over the walker, holding a big hunters knife in his gloved hands. 

Jess just about gagged as he stabbed the walker in the stomach and cut downwards. He did this a couple times and she couldn't watch, just the sound made her feel sick. When the squelching and cutting stopped she looked over. The walkers stomach was wide open and filled with a bunch of black goo. 

"Now comes the bad part." He said kneeling down on one knee over the walker and shoving his hands in its open abdomen. Rick looked as sick as Jess felt watching Daryl pull all of this gunk out of the walker. 

"Yeah, hoss has a big meal not long ago. I feel it in there." Daryl said feeling around before yanking out what I can only assume was the stomach. He plopped it on the ground, cutting it open. 

"This gross bastard had himself a woodchuck for lunch." This time I actually did gag as he pulled an entire animal head from the stomach. Both Rick and Daryl looked up at her. 

"I'm good." She said pressing her lips together.

"At least we know." Rick said, still looking disgusted.

“Yep, least we know,” Daryl agreed, flinging the head off of his knife. They got up and made their way back to the group. Jess’ heart hurt when she saw Carol standing there searching the woods and her face falling when she saw the three of them alone. 

"You didn't find her?" She asked, sounding close to crying again. 

"Her trail went cold. We'll pick it up again at first light." Daryl answered, stepping over the guardrail. 

"You can't leave my daughter out there on her own to spend the night alone in the woods." Carol said, her eyes welling with tears.

"Huntin' out in the dark's no good. We'd just be trippin' over ourselves. More people get lost." Daryl tried to explain. 

"But she's 12 she can't be out there on her own. You didn't find anything?" Carol cried desperately. 

"I know this is hard. But I'm asking you not to panic. We know she was out there-"

"And we tracked her for a while. " Daryl added.

"We have to make this an organized effort. Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I've asked him to oversee this." 

"Is that blood?" Carol asked, looking at Daryl's boots ignoring Rick’s plan. 

"We took down a walker." Dad answered calmly.

"A walker? Oh my god." Poor thing, Jess stepped forward grabbing her shoulder. 

"Carol. Carol, listen to me. There was no sign it was ever anywhere near Sophia." Jess said gently, hoping to calm her down.

"How can you know that?" Andrea asked, taking a step forward. 

"We cut the son of a bitch open, made sure." Daryl answered. 

"Oh, god." Carol whispered sitting on the guard rail. 

"How could you just leave her out there to begin with. How could you just leave her." Jess could see mixed emotions on her dad's face at Carol’s words. 

"Those two walkers were on us. I had to draw them off. It was her best chance." Rick calmly explained but she could tell he was getting agitated. 

"Sounds like he didn't have a choice, Carol. Shane said, backing his partner up.

"How was she supposed to find her way back on her own? She's just a child." She asked in a pleading voice as Rick crouched in front of her. 

"It was my only option. The only choice I could make." Rick tried to explain but Carol wasn’t having it as she stood up and rushed away from him. 

Jess turned to Rick, but he was already walking off away from the group.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Italics are Jess’ inner monologue.

"Everybody takes a weapon." Rick said, laying out a bunch of knives, axes and machetes. 

"These aren't the kind of weapons we need. What about the guns?" Jess rolled her eyes at Andrea’s question. . 

"We've been over that. Daryl, Rick, Jess and me are carrying." Shane said. 

"Wait. Jess is carrying?" Andrea asked shocked and annoyed.

"Andrea, the difference in me and you carrying is I know what the hell I'm doing. My dad and Shane both taught me to shoot a gun when I was 15 and I've had lots of practice over the years to make sure I know how to use guns and use them safely. Now pick a damn weapon and get over it or stay at the RV with Dale." Jess said, Daryl looking down and smirked as she, they were all tired of Andrea bitching all of the time about wanting a gun. 

"Okay, now that that's out of the way." Rick said, gesturing to Daryl.

"The idea is to take the creek up about five miles, turn around and come back down the other side. Chances are she'll be by the creek. It's her only landmark." He explained to the group and Jess felt pride, Daryl was finally being recognized for something he was good at, if only it was better circumstances. 

"Stay quiet and stay sharp. Keep space between you but always stay within sight of each other. Dale, keep on those repairs. We've gotta get this RV ready to move." Rick spoke, turning to Dale on the last sentence.

"We won't stay here a minute longer than we have to. Good luck out there. Bring Sophia back." Dale said. 

The group finished getting their stuff together before heading out. Daryl led them. After a while he stopped pointing forward, in front of them there was a tent on the other side of some trees a few feet away. 

"She could be in there." Shane said quietly. 

Rick, Daryl and Shane walked towards the tent first. Daryl looked around before Rick called for Carol. She call out softly for Sophia hoping she was in the tent. Daryl slowly unzipped the tent slowly. He was in there for a minute before calling out and letting them know it wasn't Sophia.

"Just some guy that did what Jenner said, opted out." Daryl said, tucking a gun in the back of his jeans. 

Heads snapped around when the sound of church bells ringing in the distance echoed around them. They all looked in the direction the bells were coming from. The ringing stopped before they got to the church but when they got there it was a big open area with a pretty white church with graves all about the area. They made their way to the church doors. The guys went in clearing the place, still no sign of Sophia though.

"I'm gonna go back in for a bit." Carol said quietly heading for the church doors. They all followed soon after standing at the back of the church. Carol was sitting in the front pew talking, praying. Jess was standing in front of Daryl, his arms wrapped around her. Everyone was silent, giving Carol the moment she needed.

After recouping they all gathered outside once again. Shane told them to head back, follow the creek bed and look for Sophia that way. He tried to argue with Jess when she said she was going with him and Rick. She laughed like he could stop her from going, Rick agreed to her coming and surprisingly Carl too. Daryl and Jess walked off for a second while everyone got themselves together. 

"Ya be safe out there, okay?" He said, grabbing her face with his hands. 

"I will be. You bee safe too." She pushed up on her tiptoes giving him a sweet kiss, not caring that some were looking at them before walking over to Rick and Shane. She hugged Lori and wrapped her arm around Carl's shoulders as they walked off. 

They’d been walking through the woods for a while, mostly in silence. They would make small conversation here and there but thankfully it was a comfortable silence. There was the sound of branches snapping nearby. Rick held his hand up for them to stop and Jess pulled her gun out tugging Carl’s shirt so he was closer to her while Rick and Shane walked in front of them. They walked forward a little ways and stopped, there was a young buck right in front of them. 

Jess looked at Rick and smiled as she grabbed Carl's hand and they slowly walked towards the buck. She was amazed being this close to, well, to any animal really. It had been so long since they had seen any kind of animal. Carl gripped her hand but she could see the excitement in his smile as they got closer. She looked back at Rick and he just looked so happy watching us. They were so close now. Her and Carl reached their hands out, just as they were about to pet it she heard the sound of a gunshot then nothing.

Rick’s entire body stiffened at the sound, watching Jess’ body fall to the ground next to the buck like it was slow motion. He saw Carl’s head snap in his direction, blood splattered on his shirt but he was still standing; he was okay. 

“No!” The sound finally ripped itself from his throat, his feet carrying him forward before he could even process it. 

He ripped off his tan button down, pressing it to her abdomen that seemed like it was bleeding too much for her small body. He vaguely registered Shane saying something in his ear and the next this he knew he was scooping up Jess’ body and running. 

_My body hurt so bad, what happened? I felt relaxed even though I was in pain, so much pain. Dad was holding me and...running? Why was he running? What happened? My eyes were so heavy and I couldn't move. He was breathing so heavily, probably from running I thought._

"Just hold on, baby, were almost there." _Almost where?_ She tried to speak but words wouldn't come out. 

"How far?" He screamed. 

"A half mile that way. Hershel. Ask for Hershel." _Hershel? Who was that?_

_I could feel that he was struggling to hold me but I couldn't do anything. I couldn't move. I couldn't help. Why was he carrying me?_

"Was she bit?" An older man asked Rick as he ran up, walking down from the porch of a big white house. 

"Shot." Rick breathed, looking down at Jess’ pale lifeless face. 

_Shot? I was shot?_

"By your man."

"Otis?" A woman's voice this time but Rick didn’t pay her any mind. 

"He said find Hershel, is that you? Help her, please. Help my little girl." He nearly begged meeting the man’s eyes. He couldn’t lose her. He couldn’t. 

"Get her inside, come on."

"Is she alive?" Rick asked as he followed Hershel, laying her on the bed. _I'm here daddy. I'm okay._

"Your name? What's your name." Hershel asked, trying to distract the man who was close to breaking down. 

"Rick. I'm- I'm Rick." _Calm down, daddy, I'm okay._

"Rick, we're gonna do everything we can, okay? You need to give us some room." Hershel asked, but he didn’t react, just stood there staring at his baby girl.

“Please, give us some room,” A pretty girl with short brown hair caught his attention and he nodded absentmindedly before turning and stumbling from the room and walking onto the porch just as Shane was running up. 

“Dad?” Carl’s meek voice called out seeing his dad’s shirt soaked in blood. 

“Carl, you sit right there. Rick, buddy?” Shane spoke gently as Carl sat on the bottom step. 

“Is she alive? Is she okay?” The man from the woods asked but Rick couldn’t say anything. His hand ran over his face, leaving a trail of blood, his daughter's blood. 

“It’s okay. She’s gonna be okay,” Shane whispered, pulling a handkerchief from his bag, grabbing Rick by the back of the neck and wiping the blood from his face. 

“Where is she?” Shane asked, his friend letting out a small sob as his eyes filled with fresh tears, not saying anything as he turned back to the door. 

"Do you know her blood type?" 

"Both of my kids are the same as me A-positive." _Dad, you're back._

"That's fortunate. Don't wander far. I'm gonna need you. What happened?" _Yes, what happened?_

"I was tracking a buck. Bullet went through it. Went clean through." Otis spoke, his voice filled with shock and guilt seeing the girl laying in the bed. _It's okay, it was an accident. The deer was so pretty._

"The deer slowed down the bullet, which certainly saved her life. But it did not go through clean. It broke up into pieces. If I can get the bullet fragments out, I'm counting six." Hershel explained but Rick couldn’t grasp what he was saying, his eyes shooting to Shane when the other man touched his arm. 

"Lori, Lori doesn't know. My wife doesn't know." Rick cried as Shane pulled him into a hug. _Mom. I missed her._

“Why’d I let them come with us? I should’ve sent them back with Daryl,” Rick shook his head, this was his fault. 

“You know, you start that, you’ll never get that monkey off your back,” Shane tried to reassure him, Carl and Jess shouldn’t have been out there, but it wasn’t Rick’s fault she got shot. 

“Little girl goes missing, you look for her. Simple. You said call it, head back-“ 

“It doesn’t matter what I said-“

“Jess got shot because I wouldn’t cut bait. It should be me in there,” Rick growled, angry at himself, barely registering Shane’s quiet chuckle. 

“You’ve been there, partner. Right? And you pulled through. So will she,” Shane nodded, he had to be hopeful, even though he was positive Jess hated him, she was life a niece to him. He couldn’t process the thought of her dying. 

“Is that why I got out of that hospital? Found my family, for it to end here like this like some kind of- like some kind of sick joke?” Rick hissed angrily, pinching the bridge of his nose. 

“Sh, Sh, Sh. You stop it. Just stop.” Shane shook his head, he understood the anger but knew it wouldn’t help the situation. 

“A little girl goes missing, you look for her. It’s plain and simple. It’s-“

“Rick,” Maggie cut him off, opening the door quickly. 

The two men rushing to the room quickly.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Italics are Jess’ inner monologue.

"Dad!" Was the first thing Rick heard as he rushed into the room, vaguely hearing something about a blood transfusion but the dream of pure pain echoed in his ears. 

"You hold her down, now." Hershel instructed, looking up at Shane, the man immediately walking over to the bed. 

"Hey, now. You're gonna be okay." _Shane?_ Jess screamed in pain at the feeling in her chest. 

“We need to take the bullet out.” _Is that what was happening? It hurts._ She cried in her head. 

"Stop! You're killing her!" Rick yelled, unable to move as Patricia held him in place to take his blood. 

"Rick, do you want her to live?" Hershel asked and Rick immediately stopped fighting. 

_My eyes were open now. I saw Shane, a bunch of people I didn't know, Carl was in the corner of the room, tears streaming down his cheeks and there he was, my dad. My best friend. He looked so scared and that made me scared. I screamed again. Then the pain stopped._

"Wait. Wait. Hey." _Shane sounded worried, weird, considering he doesn't even like me._

"She just passed out from the pain...one down, five to go." Hershel said, dropping the bullet fragment into a metal container. 

_How was I gonna me it through that 5 more times?_

"Her pressure is stable." Hershel spoke, the pressure cuff hissing as he spoke. 

"Lori needs to be here. She doesn't even know what's going on. I've gotta go find her. Bring her back." Rick spoke, unable to look at his little girl laying in the bed. 

"You can't do that." Hershel schools his head standing up. 

"She’s her mother. She needs to know what's happened. Her daughter is lying here shot." Rick ground out looking at the old man. 

"And she's going to need more blood. You can't go more than 50 feet from this bed." Rick huffed angrily. 

_Poor daddy, he's so worried. I wish my mom was here. And my Daryl. I need Daryl._

“He’s stable for now,” Shane spoke quietly as he and Rick walked from the room, Maggie and Otis nothing looking at him worriedly. These were good people, he knew the man didn’t mean to shoot Jess but it still happened. 

“ Lori has to be here Shane, she has to know,” Rick said seriously as he looked up at Shane. 

“Okay, I get that. I’m gonna handle it. But you’ve gotta handle your end. Your end is being here for your daughter, for your little girl. Even if she didn’t need your blood to survive. There is no way I would ever let you walk out of that door. Man I’d break your legs if you even tried. You know that right? If something happened to her and you weren’t here…” Shane trailed off for a moment, Rick pressing his fingers against his eyes as they welled with tears again. 

“If- is she slipped away while you were gone you would never forgive yourself for that. t. And neither would Lori, man,” Shane said, watching Rick’s shoulders shake for a second before he took a deep breath. Readjusting and compsoning himself before turning to look at Shane.

“You’re right. You’re right.” Rick nodded, fresh tears still framing his blue eyes.

“Man, when was I ever wrong?” Shane asked, trying to lighten the mood. 

“You know, when you were in that hospital, the one you were never supposed to leave. You should have seen Lori, man. I mean, the strength of that woman. Right now, Jess, she needs that from you. You got the hard part you just let me handle the rest,” Shane told him, crouching down in front of his friend, grabbing him by the back of the neck and pulling their forehead close together. Rick nodded another tear dripping down his chin, the two men pulling apart and standing when the door to the room opened up. 

“She’s out of danger for the moment. But I need to remove those remaining fragments,” Herschel spoke as we wiped his hands on a towel. 

“How? You saw how she was,” Rick shook his head, watching Hershel nod.

“I know, and that was the shallowest one. I need to go deeper to get the others,” 

“Oh man,” Shane whispered, Hershel looked at him briefly before looking back at Rick. 

“There’s more. Her stomach is distended, pressure is dropping, which means there’s internal bleeding. A fragment must have nicked one of the blood vessels. I need to open her up, find the bleeder and stitch it and she cannot move while I’m in there, I mean, at all. If she reacts the same as before, I’ll sever an artery and she’ll be dead in minutes. To even try this, I have to put her under. But if I do, she won’t be able to breathe on her own. Same bad results.” Hershel explained, watching realization dawn in the man’s eyes, followed by a determined look. 

“What’ll it take?” Rick asked but before Hershel could answer Otis stepped forward.

“You need a respirator. What else?” He asked, looking at Hershel.

“The tube that goes with it, extra surgical supplies, drapes, sutures.”  
“If you had all of that, you could save him?” Rick asked, turning to the older man. 

“If I had all of that, I could try.” Hershel corrected, because yes it would give the girl a better chance but they were still in a house and not a real hospital. 

“Nearest hospital went up in flames a month ago- the highschool,” Otis cut himself off.

“That’s what I was thinking. They set up a fema shelter there. They would have everything we need.” Hershel nodded.

“Place was overrun the last time I saw it. You couldn’t get near it. Maybe it’s better now.” Otis offered, twisting his hat in his hands nervously.

“I said, leave the rest to me. Is it too late to take that back?” Shane asked, but he would never back out of something like this. 

“I hate you going alone.” Rick shook his head. 

“C’mon. Doc, why don’t you do me a list and draw me a map?” Shane nodded as he spoke.

“You won’t need a map. I’ll take you there. Ain’t but five miles-”

“Otis, no,” Patricia shook her head walking from the room over to her husband. 

“Honey, we don’t have time for guesswork and I’m responsible. I ain’t gonna sit here while this fella takes this one alone. I’ll be alright,” He reassured her, turning back to Shane. 

“Are you sure about this?” Shane asked, they wouldn't be able to turn back once they were gone. 

“Do you even know what any of the stuff he’s talking about looks like?” Otis asked, watching the man shake his head.

“Come to think, no.”

“I’ve been a volunteer E.M.T. I do know. We can talk about this til’ next sunday or we could just go do it real quick,” Otis spoke firmly, still feeling this was his responsibility.

“I’ll take right quick,” Shane nodded pushing up off of the wall.

“I should thank you,” RIck looked at the man, but Otis shook his head.

“Wait til’ that girl of yours is up and around. Then we’ll talk. I’ll gather some things,” Otis said before walking away.

“Where is she, your wife?” Maggie asked, walking up to Rick. 

“We’ll lose the light before too long. I think we should call it.” Daryl turned to the group following behind him.

“Lets head back,” Lori nodded, watching Carol nod before the woman turned to him.

“We’ll pick it up again tomorrow?” She asked, but her eyes gave away her feelings.

“Yeah, we’ll find her tomorrow,” Lori nodded before the four of them were following behind Daryl again. 

“How much further?” Lori asked after a while of silence.

“Not much. Maybe a hundred yards as the crow flies,” Daryl grumbled, just as ready as everyone else to get back to camp, back to Jess. 

“Too bad we’re not crows,” Andrea mumbled, none of them noticing when she separated from the group until they heard the screaming. Getting back to her just as the walker’s head was smashed in by a woman on a horse. 

“Lori? Lori Grimes?” She called as she slowed the horse down. 

“I’m Lori.”

“Rick sent me. You’ve got to come now.” Maggie spoke quickly. 

“What?” Lori asked, confused. 

“There’s been an accident. Jessica’s been shot. She’s still alive but you need to come now,” Maggie rushed. Lori’s mind was going so fast she barely had time to process what the woman had said ‘Jessica’ and ‘shot’ the only things running through her mind as she met Daryl’s eyes seeing the worry there as took off her booksac. 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. We don’t know this girl,” Daryl shook his head as Lori climbed on the horse, his heart feeling like it was going to burst at the mention of Jess being hurt. 

“Rick said you had others on the highway, that big traffic snarl? Backtrack to Fairburn Road. Two miles down is our farm. You’ll see the mailbox. The name is Greene. Hyah!” Maggie explained quickly before the two women were galloping away on the horse. The group looked after them dumbstruck before a quiet growling was heard. 

“Shut up,” Daryl snarled before shooting the thing in the head, turning in the direction of camp, needing to get there as fast as possible so he could go find Jess. 

_I was left alone for a while. I was just trying to relax hoping I would feel better soon. I was praying this was just a bad dream. I felt the bed dip beside me then hands running over my face._

"Oh, my sweet girl." _Mommy?_ Lori pressed a gentle kiss to Jess’ head before laying beside her, careful not to jolt her as she moved. 

_I felt her lay beside me. I missed this. The older I got the more we grew apart. I missed her. I heard her sniffles and that made me sad, don't cry mom, please._

"Sweet girl. Mama's here. I'm here baby. It's okay. You're gonna be okay." She whispered, laying her head against Jess’ shoulder. Rick walked up behind her to rest a hand on her hip. 

"Sissy?" _Carl?_ Lori and Rick watched as they’re youngest child made his way around the bed tentatively, his face red and streaked with dry tears. 

"I'm sorry his happened, Jess. I love you." _I love you, too, bubba._

"That deer was so cool. I'm happy we got to see it together...well, I guess not since you got hurt." Rick and Lori shared a look when Carl looked down sadly. 

_It's okay, Carl. I thought it was cool too. I'll never forget that._

_It had been quiet for so long. Or maybe it just felt that way. Mom, Dad and Carl had been in and out talking to me. Daryl still wasn't here. I wonder if he knew. If he was okay. I needed him here. My mom and my dad are amazing and I love them but Daryl is my rock. Just his presence makes me feel stronger._

"Where is she?" Daryl asked as Maggie led him inside, Rick standing from his place beside Lori, the two men shaking hands before Rick led him to the room, leaving them alone for a minute.   
"Oh, baby,” He breathed quietly, she laid there. Half of her body covered up the other half only covered by a sports bra and a large bandage. _Dare, I knew you would come._

"You promised you'd be safe." He whispered, grabbing her hand and sitting in the care next to the bed. _It wasn't my fault, technically I was being safe._

"God, Jess. When I heard ya got shot I felt a different type of fear that I'd never felt before. Maggie could only bring one person back and of course your mama deserved to be here with ya so I’m sorry I wasn’t here sooner but as soon as I got back to my bike I can’t straight here. I can't lose ya Jess. You're my everythin'. My heart, my soul, the light in everyday I wake up, everythin' that is good in my life, you’re what makes me be a better man. I'll be sure to tell ya this when ya wake up but I love ya, Jess." He told her quietly, not caring that her parent could hear him right outside the room. Because this was his girl and he did love her. A silent tear slipping from his eye as he pressed a kiss to the back of her hand. _I love you too, Daryl._

_My heart was beating heavy as I opened my eyes. I coughed and there was a horrible pain. I saw an older man before my mom and dad were leaning over the bed._

Where are we?" Jess asked quietly, surprised when the words actually came out. 

"Hey, sweetheart. That's Hershel. We're in his house. You had an accident." Rick explained looking down at his daughter. 

"It hurts really bad." She whimpered, grabbing Rick’s hand. 

"Oh, baby, I know. I know." Lori whispered, pushing her hair off of her sweaty forehead.

"Well, look who decided to wake up." Jess smiled, _my Daryl_. Neither Lori or Rick missed the way the two looked at each other. 

"You should've seen it." She said as he walked over grabbing her hand again. He looked at Rick and Lori confused then back at Jess 

"Seen what darlin'?" He asked, thankful to see her blue eyes open as she spoke. 

"The deer. It was so pretty, you would have loved it." He laughed and kissed the back of her hand.

"I wish I woulda been there." He said quietly, he would’ve happily taken that billet for her but she just smiled again.

"It was so close, I almost touched him. I've never been that close-" Jess’ words were cut off. Hershel pushed Rick and Lori aside to roll Jess onto her side as her body shook violently. _Not again. I wanted to be awake, I wanted to talk to them._

"Her brain isn't getting enough blood, pressure is bottoming. She needs another transfusion." Hershel spoke. 

"Okay, I'm ready." Rick nodded stepping forward.

"If I take anymore from you your body could shut down. You could go into a coma." Hershel shook his head, their minds going immediately to Carl but it was dangerous to take too much from him. 

"Take it from me." All head’s snapped to Daryl as he pulled off his jacket. 

"What's your blood type?" Hershel asked quickly.

"O-. Anyone can have that right?" He asked as Patricia walked over to him quickly. 

"Yes, and you may have just saved her life, son." Hershel told him, rolling the girl back over, briefly looking toward Rick and Lori who were holding each other. He could imagine what they were going though right now. 

“It’s okay, you’re gonna be okay darlin,” Daryl whispered, petting her hair gently, watching as his blood flowed through the tube and into her arm.


	11. Chapter 11

"Take it easy, Jess." Rick said, helping Jess to sit on the edge of the bed.

"I'm okay, dad. Hershel gave me the go ahead and told me it would benefit me to get up and walk around now. It'll help me recover faster." She said grabbing his arm, using it to pull herself to her feet. 

Hershel's daughter Maggie had come in earlier to help her get dressed in the clothes she’d been wearing which they'd washed for her. Just a pair of jean shorts, a black tank top and her tennis shoes. From her understanding Sophia was still missing which was so sad, she was hoping they would find her soon. Daryl had been going to look for her pretty much on his own. Jess was pissed at Andrea because she shot Daryl on his way back from looking for her, no wonder she shouldn't have a gun, even if it was an accident. Daryl told her not to be upset, and that it was barely a graze but it could have easily been more. 

Daryl and Jess hadn't gotten much of a chance to be together with Lori and Rick coddling her everyday plus him going out to look for Sophia but now she was making it her mission to get some alone time with him. She had her arm linked with Rick’s as he helped her walk down the stairs. She wasn't in nearly as much pain, she was just super uncomfortable. She could see Lori and Carl feed the chickens, and everyone else was just walking about setting up camp and doing different things. It was starting to get dark but still some light out. 

As we walked up Glenn passed by with a basket of peaches which Jess happily took one, biting into it, humming happily, it was sweet and juicy. Rick said he was going to talk with Shane about looking for Sophia and coming up with a new plan so after he walked Jess over to Daryl's tent he told her good night before walking away. Of course his tent was the furthest away from everyone. 

"Hey, Dare." She said smiling, bending slightly down to walk into his tent.

"Oh, hey, here." He said sitting up, grabbing her hand to help her sit down.

"How ya feelin'?" He asked, But before she answered she grabbed the side of his face and kissed him sweetly.

"I'm feeling a lot better. How are you feeling?" She asked gently, running her thumb over his temple where Andrea had shot him.

"Ya got shot and had to have surgery and you're worried 'bout my lil bullet graze?" He asked raising an eyebrow.

"It coulda been a lot worse." She said quietly.

"Yeah, and I coulda lost ya." He said back, pushing her chin up so she would look at him.

"Thought I was gonna lose ya, Jess. And before ya try and stop me with your whole 'I'm okay' speech just lemme talk, okay? When Maggie came ridin' up on that horse to get Lori and told us ya got shot, I could feel my heart stop. She could only take one of us back and of course yer momma deserved to be there with ya. As soon as I got back to my bike I came here so worried ya we're gonna be gone by the time I got here. I was terrified. Your my everythin', I love you, Jess." He confessed and she nearly started crying. 

"I love you, too." She said quietly as he pulled her close to him so she was sitting in his lap and kissed her. 

She ran her fingers through his hair as his hands ran up and down her back soothingly. His hand tangled in her hair tilting her head back before his lips made contact with her neck. He gently pressed kisses along the skin there and she moaned quietly. Suddenly, it hit her that he really could have died, she had it worse but he could have died too. She let out a small whimper and felt tears in her eyes, he softly brought her head back up and looked at her confused.

"I love you." She whispered kissing him, not giving him time to think anything was wrong. 

She reached between them, running a hands over his chest and kissing down his neck. He pushed her away gently pulling her tank top over her head, wrapping an arm around her waist and flipped them over, softly laying her down on the covers. His hands ran down her sides as he kissed down her chest. He stopped when he got to her, now healing, wound. He ran his thumb over it soothingly before pressing a light kiss to the skin, resting his forehead against her stomach just under the gunshot wound kissing the skin there every now and then. She ran her fingers through his hair basking in the feeling of his warm breath and on her skin. 

"You're so beautiful." He whispered gruffly against her belly. 

"Make love to me, Daryl." She whispered back and he leaned up, now face to face with her. 

"You’re sure? You’re ready?" He asked, she nodded and before she even spoke again his lips were crashing against her in a heated kiss. 

She moaned into the kiss as he reached between them and unbuttoned her shorts, running his hands over her thighs. He pulled back tugging his shirt the rest of the way off and unbuttoning his jeans before dropping back down above her. Gentle fingers trailed over the wound on his side from the arrow before her hands ran over his arms resting on his biceps. They were both panting as she pushed her hips up against his, moaning when she felt his erection. His hips buckled forward against her’s grinding slowly onto her. 

"Dare..." She moaned quietly. It wasn't the first time they did anything like this but knowing they were going to do more than just get each other off made it feel different and god, she wanted him so bad. 

He pulled back again and she quickly took off her bra before he reached down and slowly pulled off her shorts and underwear. She was completely bare now, laying in front of him as his eyes roamed over her body like it was the first time he was ever seeing it. He moved to take off his jeans and boxers before moving back between her legs. He leaned over her on one elbow, pressing a kiss to my lips as he reached between their bodies with his other hand. He felt him slide against her wet folds and she moaned loudly, stifling the sound against his neck. 

"Look at me." He whispered, pushing in when her eyes met him. 

She gripped his arms tightly, throwing her head back and moaning at the feeling of him stretching her. He was still for a moment after he fully pushed in, his free hand coming up to caress the side of her face as he kissed her. She looked up at him and pushed her hips upwards against him and shivered at the pleasure it created. He pulled out before pushing back in all at once. He continued thrusting slowly, making love to her, as he kissed up and down her neck. She was trying not to be too loud but she was a moaning mess and it just felt too good to be quiet. He slowed down a little as he leaned down and kissed over her wound again, feeling him take a shaky breath, she pulled him back up and kissed him.

"I'm okay. I'm here." She whispered against his ear. He picked up his pace holding her tight against his chest as they exchanged kisses against any skin they could reach. 

She could feel a hickey on my collar bone and little stings everywhere he was leaving love bites. He started thrusting faster and faster slamming into her over and over again. She was using his shoulder to stifle her screams and moans, praying it was enough for no one else to hear. 

"I'm so close, Dare." She moaned against his ear, scratching her nails down his back, feeling the rough bump of his scars under her fingers. 

"Come on, baby." His voice was rough and raspy against her ear as he spoke and she could tell he was close to. 

She threw her head back as moaning loudly as her orgasm washed over her, his mouth coming down on hers just in time to muffle the sound. Her legs tightened around Daryl so hard he could feel them shaking. He pulled out quickly, jerking himself fast as his cum spilled out onto her belly. Daryl reached out for a rag to wipe her off but she shook her head at him. He cocked his head at her confused until she ran a finger through a small puddle on her belly, bringing it up to her lips and sucking it off. She moaned at the taste and Daryl groaned as he watched her. She kept doing it until her stomach was cleaned. Daryl slammed his lips against her shoving his tongue into her mouth nastily, groaning again when he tasted himself on her tongue. 

"You’re so fuckin’ sexy." He breathed against her lips. 

"I love you, Dare." She smiled up at him, as he rolled them over, holding her against his chest. 

"I love you, too, Jess."


	12. Chapter 12

"Good morning." Jess sighed happily, leaning over to kiss Daryl. 

"Good monrin' beautiful." He greeted the voice filled with sleep but she could see a small smile on his face.

"We should get up, go get some breakfast." She said as she sat up slipping on her bra and hooking it, looking around for a moment pulling on her underwear after she spotted them. She leaned forward collecting the rest of her clothes, smiling when she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her waist and lips on her neck.

"But I don't wanna. Wanna stay in bed with ya all day." She laughed running her hands along his arms that were still holding her. 

"I would love that, baby, but-"

"No, but's." He cut her off and she laughed again.

"But I'm hungry" She looked back at him fake pouting. 

"Oh, well then I guess we better go right now to get ya some food." He said sarcastically letting her go. 

Jess felt great today and she just couldn't keep the smile off her face. After they both got dressed, climbed out of the tent hand in hand. She had to lean most of her weight on Daryl, her wound hurting a little as they walked. 

"Morning mom, dad." She said kissing both of them on the head and ruffling Carl's hair when she passed him. Carol handed her a plate of food and she went and sat down in the chair beside Daryl.

She was turned sideways in her chair with one leg crossed under her facing towards Daryl. They were all eating in comfortable silence. Jess took another bite of her eggs, looking up at Rick and gave him a big smile even though her cheeks were stuffed with eggs causing him to laugh silently. She swallowed and laughed before finishing the food. 

"Um, guys." Glenn said standing up where everyone could see him, he looked nervous and was quiet for a minute and Jess looked at Daryl.

"So, the barn is full of walkers." Everyone stopped eating and looked at him.

Rick stood up quickly followed by Shane and once everyone else snapped out of their shock they headed for the barn. Jess stood by Daryl as they all came to a stop behind Rick in front of the barn. Shane walked forward first looking inside of the barn before quickly turning and walking towards dad.

"You cannot tell me you are okay with this." He said aggressively.

"No, I'm not, but we're guests here. This isn't our land." Rick ground out, shaking his head. 

"No, but it is our lives." Shane nearly shouted. 

"Lower your voice." Glenn said looking at Shane. 

"We can't just ignore this." Andrea said looking at Rick. 

"Okay, we either gotta go in there and we gotta make things right or we just gotta go. Now, we have been talking about Fort Benning for a long time-"

"We can't go-"

"Why, Rick? Why?"

"Because my daughter is still out there." Carol cut in before Rick could answer and Shane scoffed.

"Carol, I think it's time we all start to just consider the other possibility-"

"Shane we're not leaving without Sophia." Rick cut Shane off, he was really starting to piss everyone off.

"We're close to finding her. I just found her damn doll two days ago." Daryl said angrily.

"You found her doll, Daryl. That's what you did. You found a doll."

"Man, you don't know what the hell you're talking about." Daryl said stepping forward towards Shane, it was clear he was pissed off now. 

"Look, I'm just saying what needs to be said. You get a good lead in the first 48 hours-"

"Shane, stop." Rick said, stepping between the two men, trying to stop a fight from starting.

"No, no. Man, let me tell you something else. If she was alive out there and saw you comin' all methed out with your buck knife and geek ears around your neck, she would run in the other direction." Shane shouted at Daryl who jumped forward, his fist connecting with Shane’s jaw before he was pushed back. Jess reached forward grabbing Daryl's wrist but she knew she couldn't really stop him. 

"Now, just let me talk to Hershel." Rick said after the two were separated. 

"What the hell are you gonna figure out?" Shane shouted, still angry.

"If we are gonna stay. If we are gonna clear this barn, I have to talk him into it. This is his land." Rick bit back.

"Hershel sees those things in there as people, sick people, his wife and step son." Dale spoke up walking next to Rick. 

"You knew?" Rick asked shocked. 

"Yesterday, I talked to Hershel. I thought we could survive one more night and we did. I was waiting till this morning to say something. But Glenn wanted to be the one." Dale explained.

"This man is crazy, Rick, if Hershel thinks those things alive or no-" Shane was cut off when the chains and barn doors started rattling and the walkers inside started growling. 

"Do you know what's going on?" T-Dogg asked as him and Andrea walked up to where Glenn, Maggie and Jess were sitting on the porch steps. It had been a couple hours since the incident at the barn

"Where is everyone?" Andrea asked.

"You haven't seen Rick?" Glenn asked, looking from them to Jess who just shrugged. 

"He went off with Hershel. We were supposed to leave a couple hours ago." Andrea replied. 

"Yeah you were. What the hell?" Daryl asked, walking up with Carol, stepping close to Jess’ side. 

"Here we go." Daryl said tuning and walking a few feet away, as Shane was walking up. He had the bag of guns over his shoulder and looked pissed. As he passed Daryl he tossed him a shotgun and continued walking to the group gathered by the porch. He started handing out guns to everyone. When he got to Jess and she didn't take the gun he slammed in against her chest. He was lucky she just shot him right now. She met Daryl’s angry eyes but shook her head. They didn’t need another fight right now. 

"Look it was one thing sitting around picking daisies when we thought this place was supposed to be safe but now we know it ain't. How 'bout you man, you gonna protect yours." He asked walking up to Glenn holding out a gun. Glenn took it angrily looking between Shane and Maggie. 

"Can you shoot?" Shane asked looking at Maggie.

"Can you stop?" She retorted. "You do this, you hand out these guns, my dad will make you leave tonight." She said angrily and Jess didn’t blame her. It was obvious her and Glenn had something romantic going on, she didn’t want them to leave as much as they didn’t want to leave. 

"What is this?" Lori asked as she walked onto the porch. 

"We have to stay, Shane." Carl said walking down the stairs. 

"We ain't going anywhere, okay? Look, Hershel, he's just gotta understand. I want you to take this." Shane said, kneeling down in front of Carl and holding out his gun. Lori gasped walking down the steps and Jess stepped in front of Carl. 

"Dad said no guns. This isn't your call." Jess hissed as Shane stood up staring down at her. 

"Oh shit!"


	13. Chapter 13

"What the hell are you doing?" Shane yelled as the group ran towards Rick. Him and Hershel were leading two walkers on poles, Jimmy a few feet in front of them. 

"Shane, just back off." Rick said as they got close, his eyes glancing briefly at Jess who leaned against Lori holding her side where she’d been shot. 

"Why do your people have guns?" Hershel asked, looking around at the group. 

"Are you kidding me? You see? You see what they're holding?" Shane spat. 

"I see who I'm holding." Hershel shouted back. 

"No, man, you don't."

"Shane, just let us do this and then we can talk." Rick shouted. Daryl had his gun ready incase he needed to step in but Jess wanted no part of whatever was about to go down. 

"What you want to talk about, Rick? These things ain't sick. They're not people. They're dead. Ain't gonna feel nothing for them cause all they do is kill! These things right here, they're the things that killed Amy. They killed Otis. They're are gonna kill all of us."

"Shane, shut up!" Rick shouted, struggling with the walker. 

"Hey, Hershel man, let me ask you something. Could a living breathing person, could they walk away from this?" Shane asked shooting the walker in the chest three time. 

"Three rounds in the chest could someone who's alive just take that? Why is it still coming?" He shouted shooting it three more times. 

"Shane, enough!"

"Yeah, you're right man. That is enough." He said walking forward and shooting the walker Hershel was holding in his hands. Jess’ heart broke seeing the look on Hershel's face as the walker fell limp to the ground and kneeled next to her.

"Enough risking our lives for a little girl who's gone! Enough living next to a barn full of things that are trying to kill us. Enough. Rick, it ain't like it was before. Now, if y'all want to live, if you want to survive, you gotta fight for it! I'm talking about fighting right here, right now." Shane shouted turning and running towards the barn doors and trying to bust the locks on it. 

Rick was trying to get Hershel to take the walker on the pole but he wouldn't. Maggie was kneeling beside her father holding him as he cried. Rick was shouting at Shane to stop but he wouldn't, once he finally popped the lock he banged on the door before running back towards the group. The door was still chained at the top only letting the doors open enough for one walker to get through at a time. Everyone with guns lined up and started shooting the walkers.

Jess sighed heavily. Hershel and his daughters were crying seeing their loved ones killed even if they were walkers they didn't see them that way. She gripped the handle of the gun in her hand and watched the scene unfold in front of her . Shane turned around looking at Rick before shooting the walker he'd been holding. Jesd shook my head looking down, after what felt like forever the gun fired died down and the growling stopped. Everyone was just standing there quietly. 

Then the worst thing that could have happened, happened. The quietness was interrupted as a low growl was heard from inside the barn. Everyone was suddenly back on alert, freezing when the small walker came out. Jess wanted to cry when she realized the walker that came out was Sophia. She heard Carol cry out and saw her run forward, grateful Daryl stopped her but she angry when no one raised a gun for her. Hypocrites. She gripped the handle of her gun again and slowly pushed through everyone. 

Jess stood still as Sophia slowly stumbled forward. She waited until the last possible second to pull the trigger and felt her blood splatter against her and chest. Her other hand reaching out to catch the back of her head and slowly lowered her to the ground before she turned and walked away. Rick reached for her but she just walked passed him shaking her head again. She was sitting on the porch steps a few minutes later when she saw Hershel and his family approaching followed closely by Glenn, Shane, Daryl and Rick, with Shane bitching as usual.

"We’ve been out combing these woods looking for her and she was in there all along? You knew." Shane said badgering them after he just killed the people they love. 

"Leave us alone." Maggie said looking at him over her shoulder. 

"Get your hands off of me." Shane said angrily when Rick tried to stop him. Jess stood up from the stairs as they got closer and stepped to the side.

"I-" Hershel tried to speak but Shane kept cutting him off.

"You knew and kept it from us." 

"I didn't know." Hershel said sadly.

"Bullshit. I think y'all knew." Jess bit her lip hard really getting fed up with Shane. 

"We didn't know!" Maggie shouted again. 

"Why was she in there?!" Shane shouted again. 

"Otis put those people in the barn." Hershel spoke, ushering his daughters up the stairs. "Maybe he found her and out her in there before he was killed." 

"You expect me to believe that?" Shane asked, Jess shared a look with Rick and he didn’t miss the way she was gripping her gun. 

"I don't care what you believe." Hershel shouted and it surprised them. "Get him off my land!" 

"Let me tell you something, man." Shane said stepping towards Hershel and that was the last straw for me. Jess pulled back the hammer on her gun and raised it to the side of Shane's head stopping him from doing anything else.

"Maggie, take your father inside, be alone. And Shane, you're gonna leave them the hell alone." Jess said staring at the side of Shane's face but saw Maggie puller her father away and a second later heard the door shut. 

"Jess..." Rick and Daryl both called gently. 

"No, I'm sick of him acting like he knows what the fuck is best for us. You're just a hot-headed piece of shit that thinks just cause you banged my mom a couple of times that my dad's family is yours. Well, it's not and you can't face the fact that he's a better leader than you. You're a fucking piece of shit and I'm sick and tired of it. So, either you can learn your goddamn place or I can blow your brains out like you just did to all of those walkers. Your pick." 

Shane put his hand up turning towards her, backing up a step and nodding at her but still looking as pissed as ever. She still hand her gun raised towards him. Daryl and Ricklooked at each other, Rick nodding at him before Daryl slowly walked towards her placing his hand on her wrist gently pushing down until she finally lowered her gun. Daryl took the gun from her hand before he turned her around and led her to their tent. They climbed in when the tent was zipped and it felt secure she fell to her knees. Her breathing got heavier as her eyes filled with tears, Daryl kneeling in front of her grabbing her face in his hands.

"Hey, hey. Shh. Calm down it's okay, darlin'." He said quietly and she shook her head.

"No. No, it's not okay. Sophia- and, and- I almost- Shane..." She cried not even able to form full scentences. 

"Look at me, baby. Ya did what needed to be done for Sophia and Shane in all honestly deserves whatever he's got comin' to 'em and that ain't on you. Ya ain't no killer." He said pulling her into his chest and kissing her head.


	14. Chapter 14

"I'm going with you." Jess told Rick walking towards the car with him.

"Jess, I don't know, you’re still healing-“

"Dad, I can't be here. I can't be around him right now." She said hearing the anger in her own voice. He looked in her eyes before nodding, he didn’t need any fights starting while he was gone so he guessed this was the best way to prevent one. She walked past him getting in the back seat. The ride was silent for a few minutes before Glenn spoke up. 

"Maggie said she loves me. I mean, she doesn't mean it. She can't. She's upset or confused. She's probably feeling, like-"

"I think she's smart enough to know how she's feeling." Rick cut off Glenn’s rambling.

"No, no. No, you know what? She wants to be in love, so she's- she needs something to- to, like hold onto-"

"Glenn, it's pretty obvious to everyone that Maggie loves you. And not just because you're one of the last men standing" Jess laughing and leaning up between the two front seats, propping her self against the consol. 

"Right, what she said. So what's the problem?" Rick said looking at Glenn then back at the road. 

"I didn't say it back. I've never had a woman say that to me before. Except, like my mom of course and my sisters. But with Maggie, it's different. We barely know each other. What does she really know about me? Nothing. We're practically strangers."

"So were Daryl and I." Jess shrugged, smiling when Glenn looked at her. 

"Daryl and I didn't get together long after meeting. Us women, we fall in love differently, Glenn,” Jess laughed when Glenn made a gesture for her to continue. Rick was interested to hear the story, he hadn’t asked before, it hadn’t really crossed his mind to ask. 

“About two weeks after we got to camp and Daryl and I met for the first time we both knew there was something there. We would stay up late talking, he comforted me when I thought dad was dead, I helped him manage his anger, most of which was Merle's fault and we got closer every day, every hour, every minute that we spent together. I started going with him hunting. The first day I went with him, I know you remember, I came back all scraped up with bruises and covered in mud,” Glenn cocked is heard for a moment, he didn’t remember that day the whole group had been worried about them. 

“Well, we were out and I wasn't paying close enough attention, we were at the top of a high hill and it had rained the day before. I lost my footing and slid down the hill, lost my knife, could hear Daryl shout my name and when I got to the bottom I was covered in mud and blood. The mud was so deep that I would start sinking when I tried to walk. There were 3 walkers that noticed me and started trying to get to me. The mud was so thick and slippery and every other step I was falling down. I had to yell at Daryl to find another way down so he wouldn't get stuck too. One of the walkers got loose and I guess the mud wasn't to bad by him and he lunged at me knocking me onto my back in the mud. Now, as you can see I'm very small and this walker was big and heavy. He was pushing me down into the mud. I was screaming for Daryl and just as my arms were about to give the walker was pulled off and killed but there he was pulling me up and to the other side of the mud pit. He immediately pulled me into a hug and I didn't know if I wanted to laugh or cry. But he grabbed my face and kissed me. Mud, blood and all. He saved my life for the first time that day and that's when I knew I loved him." Jess smiled as she finished talking. Glenn was quiet and looked thoughtful and Rick had a small smile on his face. 

"When did you say it?" Glenn asked.

"We didn't say it until recently. After I was shot was when he said it first and now we tell each other every day. I will say this though. You and Maggie had a physical connection before Daryl and I did and that makes feelings progress quicker too." Jess said, shrugging.

"Wait, so, and forgive me Rick for asking this in front of you, but you and Daryl hadn't..." Glenn trailed off and Jess laughed at the look on Rick’s face.

"No. I was a virgin before Daryl and it didn't happen until after I got shot." Jess shook her head as Rick shifted in his seat. 

"So, what do I do? I just stood there like a jerk." Glenn said, Jess could tell Rick was happy about the change in subject.

"Hey, this is a good thing, something we don't get enough of these days. Enjoy it." Rick said, glancing at him.

"And when we get back, return the favor." Jess added smiling. Glenn nodded before looking out the window and the rest of the ride was silent until they pulled up to the bar.

"Rick, I know about Lori." Glenn started and Rick looked like he was about to stop him but Glenn spoke first.

"I know she's pregnant." Jess’ eyes widened as she looked at Rick. 

"Mom is pregnant?" She whisper yelled at him. 

"Oh." Glenn said quietly. 

"We'll talk about this later but yes." He said before getting out of the car. Jess huffed angrily looking at Glenn who had a guilty look on his face before getting out of the car. Glenn shut the door to the bar as they walked in, Hershel sitting with his back to them. Rick walked forward and dhe took a few steps as Rick called out to him. 

"Hershel."

"Who's with you?" He asked. 

"Glenn and Jessica." Rick answered.

"I'm guessing Maggie sent him?" It was more of a statement than a question.

"He volunteered. He's good like that." Rick said walking forward and leaning against the bar next to Hershel.

"How many did you have?" He asked.

"Not enough." Hershel replied. 

"Let's finish this up back at home." Rick said, Hershel was silent.

"Beth collapsed, is in some sort of shock." Jes said still behind them, hoping the mention of his youngest daughter would snap him out of this. 

"Maggie's with her?" He asked, taking a sip of his drink. 

"Yeah, but Beth needs you." Rick stated seriously.

"What could I do? She needs her mother. Or rather to mourn like she should've done weeks ago. I robbed her of that. I see that now. " Hershel said before taking a drink, the emotion thick in his voice. 

"You thought there was a cure. You can't blame yourself for holding out hope." Jess spoke again, shaking her head. 

"Hope?" Hershel said with a quiet chuckle. "When I first saw your father running across my field with you in his arms, I had little hope you would survive."

"But I did." Jess retorted, hand unconsciously going to her side where she’d been shot. 

"Yes, you did. Even though we lost Otis, your man Shane made it back and we saved you. That was the miracle that proved to me miracles do exist. Only it was a sham, a bait and switch. I was a fool, and you people saw that. My daughters deserve better than that." They were all quiet after Hershel spoke, motioned for us to go to the front of the bar after a few minutes.

"So what do we do? Just wait for him to pass out?" Glenn asked Rick, they couldn’t just leave him there. 

"Just go. Just go!" Hershel shouted waving is had at the three of them. 

"I promised Maggie I'd bring you home." Rick said shaking his head as Hershel chuckled.

"Like you promised that little girl’s mother?" Rick nodded slowly before walking back to Hershel.

"What's your plan? Finish that bottle? Drink yourself to death and leave your girls alone?" Rick said as Hershel slammed his glass down and turned towards Rick getting out of his seat.

"Stop telling me how to care for my family, my farm. You people are like a plague! I do the Christian thing, give you shelter, and you destroy it all!" Hershel shouted and it seemed so out of place hearing him like that. 

"The world was already in bad shape when we met." Rick stated angrily.

"And you take no responsibility! You're supposed to be their leader!" 

"Well, I'm here now aren't I?" Rick shouted back. 

"Yes. Yes. Yes, you are." He said, sounding sad as he turned back and walked to his seat again. Rick walked forward and Jess walked around the bar and stood in front of hershel. 

"Come on, Hershel. Your girls need you now more than ever." She spoke as Rick grabbed Hershel's arm but he yanked it away. 

"I didn't want to believe you. You told me there was no cure, that these people were dead, not sick. I choose not to believe that. But when Shane shot Lou in the chest and she just kept coming, that's when I knew what an ass I'd been. That Annette had been dead long ago and I was feeding a rotting corpse! That's when I knew there was no hope. And when that little girl came out of the barn, the look on your face, I knew you knew it too. Right? There is no hope. And you know it now like I do. Don't you? There is no hope for any of us." Hershel said, turning away from Rick and pouring himself another drink. Rick and Jess shared a look, shd shook my head and turned away.

"Look, I'm done. I'm not doing this anymore, cleaning up after you. You know what the truth is? Nothing has changed. Death is death. It's always been there, whether it's from a heart attack, cancer, or a walker. What's the difference? You didn't think it was hopeless before, did you? Now there are people back at home trying to hang on. They need us, even if it's just to give them a reason to go on, even if we don't believe it ourselves. You know what? This isn't about what we believe anymore. It's about them." Rick said to Hershel who knocked back the rest of his drink. Jess sighed relieved when he set the glass aside and nodded, jumping slightly when the doors opened loudly and two men walked in.

"Son of a bitch. They're alive."


	15. Chapter 15

Glenn had walked around the counter and was standing a few feet away from Jess as the two guys made their way over. One sat at the counter next to Hershel and one sat at the table closed to the small group and poured himself a drink.

"I'm Dave. That scrawny-looking douche bag there is Tony." The guy at the table said pointing to the bigger man.

"Eat me, Dave." Tony laughed.

"Hey, maybe someday I will." Dave said holding his hands out and laughing. His eyes found Jess looking her over before Rick stepped back to the bar covering her with his body. 

"We met on I-95 coming out of Philly. Damn shit-show that was." Dave said casually trying to start up a conversation. 

"I'm Glenn. It's nice to meet some new people." He offered trying to be friendly. 

"Rick Grimes,” He tipped his head, not getting good vibes from these guys at all. 

"How about you, pal? Have one?" Dave asked Hershel raising his glass.

"I just quit." Hershel said to the man. 

"You've got a unique sense of timing my friend."

"His name is Hershel. He lost people today, a lot of them." Rick explained to the man.

"I'm truly sorry to hear that. To better days and new friends. And to our dead may they be in a better place." Dave said, looking around and raising his glass. He threw the drink back before fixing another one. As he was leaning over we could see the gun in the back of his jeans, stopping when he noticed Rick looking and took the gun out.

"Not bad, huh? I got it off a cop."

"I'm a cop." Rick said looking at the man holding his gun. 

"This one was already dead." He said smiling at Rick, yeah he definitely didn’t like these two guys. 

"You fellas are a long way from Philadelphia." Jess spoke up and both men's eyes looked over at her, the sweet feminine voice catching them off guard for a moment. .

"Feels like we're a long way from anywhere, honey-"

"You can call me Jessica." She cut him off.

"Alright, Jessica." He said, nodding his head slowly as he licked his bottom lip.

"So, what drove you south?" Rick asked the men, fighting off the pang of anger at the way this man looked at his daughter. 

"Well, I can tell you it wasn't the weather. I must've dropped 30 lbs in sweat alone down here. First, it was D.C. I hear there might be some kind of refugee camp, but the roads were so jammed, we never even got close. We decided to get off the highways, into the sticks, keep hauling ass. Every group we came across had a new rumor about a way out of this thing." Dave explained.

"One guy told us there was a coast guard sitting in the gulf, sending ferries to the islands. The latest was a rail yard in Montgomery running trains to the middle of the country, Kansas, Nebraska."

"Nebraska?" Glenn asked confused. 

"Low population. Lots of guns." Tony answered.

"Kinda makes sense." Glenn said playing with his glass.

"You ever been to Nebraska, kid? There's a reason they call 'em fly over states." Dave asked and him and Tony laughed.

"How about you guys?" He asked Rick. 

"Fort Benning, eventually." 

"I hate to piss in your cornflakes, officer, but we ran across a grunt who was stationed at Benning. He said the place was overrun by lamebrains." Dave said sipping at his drink. 

"Wait, Fort Benning is gone? Are you forreal?" Glenn asked.

"Sadly, I am. Oddly, the truth is there is no way out of this mess. Just keep going from one pipe dream to the next, praying one of these mindless freaks doesn't grab ahold of you when you sleep."

"If you sleep" Tonny added after Dave finished talking.

"Yeah, well, hey, it doesn't look like you guys are hanging your hats here. You holed up somewhere else?" Dave said changing the subject.

"Not really." Rick answered.

"Those your cars out front?" He asked pointing towards the door. 

"Yeah, why?" Glenn answered a little to quick. 

"We're living in ours. Those look kinda empty, clean. Where's all your gear?"

"We're with a larger group. Out scouting, thought we could use a drink." Hershel answered this time.

"A drink? Hershel, I thought you quit." Dave asked amused. "Well, we're thinking of settling around here. Is it safe?" 

"It can be." Jess said leaning forward on the counter resting on her forearms. 

"I've killed a couple walkers around here." Glenn added casually. 

"Walkers? That what you call them? That's good." Dave said laughing again. "I like that. I like that better than lamebrains."

"More succinct." Tony said and Jess furrowed her brow.

"Okay, Tony went to college."

"Two years."

"So what, so what, you guys set up on the outskirts or something? That new development? Trailer park or something? A farm?" Dave asked as Tony stood up and walked to the other side of the room.

"Old McDonald had a farm" Dave sang and Tony chuckled.

"You got a farm?" Dave asked but we all glance at Tony who started pissing on the floor.

"Is it safe?" Tony asked.

"Its gotta be. You got food, water?" Dave answered looking at Rick. 

"You got cooze? Ain't had a piece of ass in weeks." Jess’ mouth fell open as Tony spoke and Dave caught her eye.

"Really, Tony, in front of the lady? Listen, pardon my friend. City kids, they got no tact. No disrespect. So, listen, Glenn-"

"We've said enough." Rick cut him off with a quiet growl. 

"Well, hang on a second. This farm, it sounds pretty sweet. Don't it sound sweet, Tony?" Dave asked.

"Real sweet." Tony agreed walking back over.

"How about a little southern hospitality? We got some buddies back at camp, been having a real hard time." Dave explained. 

"I don't see why you can't make room for a few more. We can pull our resources, manpower."

"Look, I'm sorry. That's not an option." Rick said and Jess was starting to pick up the same uneasy vibes Rick had. 

"Doesn't sound like it would be a problem." Dave held his hands out. 

"I'm sorry we can't" Hershel repeated Rick firmly. 

"We can't take in anymore." Rick added and Dave laughed. 

"You guys are something else. I thought we were friends. We got people we gotta look out for too." Dave looked at Rick again.

"We don't know anything about you." Rick stated, he didn’t care about these people. 

"No, that's true. You don't know anything about us. You don't know what we've had to go through out there, the things we've had to do. I bet you've had to do some of those things yourself. Am I right? Cause ain't nobody's hands clean in what's left of this world. We're all the same. So come on let's take a nice friendly hayride to this farm and we'll get to know each other."

"That's not gonna happen." Rick shook his head. 

"Rick-"

"This is bullshit." Tony cut Dave off angrily. 

"Calm down." Rick said looking at Tony.

"Don't tell me to calm down. Don't ever tell me to calm down. I'll shoot you three assholes in the head, take the girl and take your damn farm." Rick spun around facing Tony. Jess pulled out her gun holding it down below the bar so they couldn't see it. 

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Relax. Take it easy. Nobody's killing anybody. Nobody's shooting anybody, Rick." Dave said hopping over the other bar. Stopping when he saw Rick and putting his gun on top of the bar. 

"We're just friends having a drink. That's all, now where's the good stuff, huh? Good stuff, lets see." Dave said, Rick grabbed his gun when Dave bent down behind the bar. He stood back up holding a bottle before pouring a glass.

"You gotta understand, we can't stay out there. You know what it's like."

"Yeah I do." Rick said still watching Dave. "But the farm is too crowded as is. I'm sorry. You'll have to keep looking."

"Keep looking. Where do you suggest we do that." He asked Rick. 

"I don't know. I hear Nebraska's nice." Rick retorted and Dave laughed. 

"Nebraska. This guy." He said, biting at his lip. Dave reached for his gun, Rick shot him and then turned and shot Tony who was going for his gun.

There was nothing but silence after both men fell to the ground.


	16. Chapter 16

"We need to head back." Hershel said after a moment of silence. Rick and Glenn got the guns from the two men, as they were making our way to the front door there were headlights. 

"Car. Car. Get down." Rick hushed, the three of them following Rick’s lead and crouched down. Hershel and Jess were on one side of the door, Rick and Glenn on the other side. 

"Dave? Tony? They said they were over here?" A man outside asked.

"Yeah." Another man answered.

"I'm telling you, man, I heard shots." A third man asked. 

"I saw roamers two streets over. Might be more around here." The second man said, Rick hoped that meant they would just leave. 

"It's hot. We gotta get out of here." The first man complained. 

"Dave! Tony!" The second guy called tapping on the door.

"Shut up, you idiot! You wanna attract 'em? Just stick close well find 'em." The first man spoke again as their shadows passed by the windows.

"Dude, he said stay close." The second man grumbled as they continued quietly calling for Dave and Tony as they walked away. 

After sitting quietly for a few minutes Rick slowly moved to look out the window. He let the curtain fall shut before him and Glenn quietly made their way to Hershel and Jess. 

"Why won't they leave?" Glenn asked quietly.

"Would you?" Hershel answered but he knew none of them would leave their people. 

"We can't sit here any longer. Let's head out the back and make a run to the car. " Rick said, the four slowly got up but quickly crouched back down when there were gunshots. 

"What happened?" One of the men asked as the sound of feet feet hurriedly made their way back to the front of the bar. 

"Roamers. I nailed 'em." Another one said, this guy sounded younger than the other three. 

"They disappeared but their car is still here." The third man asked. 

"I cleared those buildings, you guys get this one?" 

"No." Both guys answer.

"Were looking for Dave and Tony and no one checks the damn bar?" Footsteps approach and as the door starts to open Glenn three himself in front of it pushing it shut.

"Someone pushed it shut. There's someone in there." The second man said. 

"Yo, is someone in there? If someone's in there we don't want no trouble. We're just looking for our friends." The third guy called out but none of them missed the sound of a gun cocking. 

"What do we do?" The second guy asked.

"Bum rush the door?" The third one spoke again.

"No, we don't know how many are in there. Just relax. We don't want any trouble." The guy started whispering to the guys then shouted at them again. 

'We don't want any trouble. We're just looking for our friends. If something happened, tell us. This place is crawling with corpses. If you can help us not get killed, I'd appreciate it." The guy called out again, that same ‘trying to be friendly to get what I want’ tone in his voice. Rick and Jess made eye contact and she shook her head, she really didn't need him doing anything stupid. 

"Dude, you're bugging. I'm telling you nobody's in there."

"Someone guard the door. If they're in there, they might know where Dave and Tony are. "

"They drew on us!" Rick shouted, grinding his teeth as he watched Jess’ eyes widened. Hershel sighed and gave Rick the same look she was giving him. 

"Dave and Tony in there? They alive?" The man called.

"No." Rick called out again.

"They killed Dave and Tony." One guy spoke and they could hear them cocking their guns. 

"Come on, man, let's go."

"No, I'm not leaving. I'm not telling Jane. I'm not gonna go back and tell them that Dave and Tony got shot by some assholes in a bar."

"Your friends drew on us! They gave us no choice! I'm sure we've all lost enough people. Done things we wished we didn't have to, but it's like that now. You know that! So let's just chalk this up to what it was, wrong place, wrong-" Rick was cut off buy a gunshot and the glass on the door breaking, Rick stood up shooting out the broken glass. 

"Get out of here! Go!" Rick yelled, Glenn grabbed Jess’ arm and pulled her away. They ran further to the back of the bar all having to duck down again. She looked over at Rick from her spot holding her gun tightly, feeling something wet trickling down her side. She took a deep breath, lifting her shirt looking down, groaning internally when she realized her stitched had ripped open. Rick looked over immediately noticing the blood he caught her eye but she gave him a small not, she would be okay. 

"Hey! We all know this is not gonna end well! There's nothing in it for any of us!" Rick shouted as he re-loaded his gun. 

There was a sound of bottles breaking in the back, Rick looked at Glenn who nodded and got up to check it out. It was quiet. All the sudden there was a gunshot and the sound of glass breaking. Rick got up calling out quietly for Glenn who said he was okay. Rick and Jess made their way to where Hershel was and huddled together.

“Jess, let me have a look,” Hershel spoke as soon as she was crouched next to him. She winced as she pulled up her shirt again, the fabric sticking to the wound. 

“Okay, just ripped stitches, that isn’t hard to fix. You need to be as careful as possible, you don’t need to make that any worse,” Hershel spoke and Jess nodded. 

“You okay?” Rick asked gently as she lowered her shirt. 

“Yeah,” She answered quietly. 

"I'll hold them here. You cover Glenn. See if you can make it to the car. Tell him to pull up back, we'll run for it, get the hell out of here." Rick said looking at his daughter she nodded quietly heading to the door Glenn went through just a few moments ago. He was standing facing the door with his gun up. She walked down the stairs, the floor squeaking under her feet as she got closer and he turned around fast pointing the gun at me. 

"Sorry. Sorry." He said as she pushed the gun away.

"Dad wants you to try for the car." She whispered. 

"Try?"

"You'll try and succeed, Glenn. I'll cover you." She said but she could see how nervous he was.

"That's a great plan." He said sarcastically before going over to the door. She rolled her eyes, following him and stood against the wall by the door holding her gun up as he pushed to doors open. Glenn walked out first, Jess staying in the doorway. A shot was fired and Glenn moved away fast, she shot at the other guy, hitting him in the shoulder and he fell to the ground. 

"What happened?" Rick asked as he and Hershel came running up, the guy was on the ground groaning in pain.

"He fired. He must have hit Glenn. He's behind the dumpster." Jess said looking over to where she could only see Glenn's feet, Rick stepped out walking towards the other man hesitantly. 

"You hit?" He called out quietly. " Glenn, are you hit?"

"No. No." The three of them sighed at Glenn's quiet reply. As soon as Rick and Glenn stood up more shots were fired. 

"Lets get out of here. Roamers all over the place! Hurry up!" A man shouted to another man on the roof of a building.

"What about Sean?" The guy on the roof shouted back. 

"They shot him. We gotta go! Jump!" The guy jumped onto the roof next to him sliding down followed by a scream. He was screaming for help but the other guy just left him shouting a half assed apology before driving away. The guy Jess’ shot was screaming as walkers attacked him, Hershel and Jess made their way to Glenn before running across the street to Rick. 

"Dad!" She whisper yelled. The guy that jumped off of the roof had impaled himself on a pointed fence. He was screaming and being entirely too loud. Hershel kept trying to quiet him and wanted to leave him but Rick talked him into helping him. As they were trying to get his leg off his other leg shot out and kicked Jess in the face. She yelped in pain bringing her hand to her face, her mouth and nose were both bleeding. The guy kept repeating he was sorry and didn't mean to do it. 

"Shut up or I will shoot you!" Rick growled angrily. They agreed to help him but she couldn't take the screaming anymore. She looked at Rick then at the guy before raising her fist and punching him in the face effectively shutting him up. Hershel and Glenn looked at her shocked. 

"What? He would have passed out from pain anyway, plus, pay back for kicking me in the face." She shrugged as she gestured to her face.


	17. Chapter 17

They finally got the guy off of the post. Jess could feel dried blood on her face, her head was pounding and her side hurt like hell. It was early but it was already bright out when they turned down the road to Hershel's farm. Everyone was around camp turning their heads when they saw the truck coming down the driveway. 

Jess just wanted to change her clothes and wash this blood off of her body. Carl ran up to Rick, Lori close behind and she hugged them. She got a couple questioning looks from some of the group as she walked past them but she didn't really care. She saw Daryl and made her way straight to him.

"What the hell happened? Ya alright?" He asked as she got closer, she nodded hugging him. 

"Patricia, prepare the shed for surgery," Hershel said walking inside.

"Who the hell is that?" T-Dogg asked, pointing to the car. 

"That's Randall," Glenn answered. 

Shane and T- Dogg moved to get Randall out of the car and brought him in for Hershel, Rick following close them and everyone else followed him. Daryl led Jess to their tent, grabbing one of his handkerchiefs and pouring some water over it before climbing into the tent. He crouched down in front of here where she was sitting on their bed and started cleaning her face gently frowning when she winced slightly. 

"So what happened?" He asked gruffly.

"I got kicked in the face," She answered him and he pulled back and looked at her. 

"Kicked in the face? By who? That prick y'all brought back-"

"Dare," She said gently, rubbing his thigh and cutting off his angry rant before it could start. 

"We were trying to help him, he was in pain, I guess a reflex or something and my face paid the price," She said shrugging. 

"Well good news is your nose ain't broken." He said, tossing down the handkerchief. 

"Arms up." He said, she raised her arms he pulled it off and tossed it into their dirty clothes pile. 

"Damn, ya ripped your stitches too," He grumbled. 

"Yeah, hurts pretty bad," Daryl looked up at her at that, pressing a quick kiss to her lips before laying her back. 

"Patch ya up a little bit, let Hershel stitch it back up later," She nodded, her finger tip brushing over his arm as he reached for one of his bags off to the side. 

"Think I got some of Merle's painkillers in here too if ya want somethin'," He said quietly, pulling out some bandages from the bag. 

"Hm. I'm okay for right now, thank you though," She told him quietly, her eyes sliding closed as his fingers slid down the middle of her stomach. 

Daryl watched the goosebumps on her skin at the touch of his fingers, leaning down to press a kiss right above her belly button before grabbing the rag again. Her breath hitched as he started cleaning the blood from her skin, he mumbled a quiet 'sorry, darlin',' but continued cleaning the area. After deciding he cleaned it ass good as he could for now he bandaged the would before helping her sit up and slipping a clean shirt over her head. She pulled her jeans off, sliding on a clean pair of jeans and after slipping her shoes back on they left out of the tent and headed back to the house. 

"He'll have a fighting chance," Rick said as they were walking inside. 

"He knows where we are, we're just gonna let him go?" Shane ask like he couldn't believe it. 

"He was blindfolded the whole way here. He's not a threat." Rick snapped defensively.

"Not a threat. How many of them were there? You killed three of their men, you took one of them hostage, but they just ain't gonna come looking?" Shane asked, rolling his eyes.

"They left him for dead. No one is looking." Rick bit out at the other man. 

"We should still post a guard," T-Dogg said, but they already had someone on guard at all times anyway.

"He's out cold right now, will be for hours," Hershel walked into the room standing beside Rick as he wiped his hand on a towel. 

"You know what? I'm gonna go get him some flowers and candy. Look at this folks, we're back in fantasyland." Shane retorted all pissy heading for the door.

"You know, we haven't even dealt with what you did at my barn yet. Let me make this very clear, once and for all. This is my farm. Now, I wanted you gone. Rick talked me out of it, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. So do us both a favor, keep your mouth shut." Jess snickered under her breath as Hershel spoke, getting the death glare from Shane and a disapproving look from her dad, she just shrugged as Shane walked away. 

"Look, we're not gonna do anything about it today. Let's just cool off." Rick said effectively dismissing everyone. 

After everyone left out of Hershel's house Daryl decided to go hunting and Jess wanted to go with him. He waited until after Hershel stitched her back up before they headed out. They were walking in comfortable silence as he followed some tracks, she wasn't paying too much attention except to where she was stepping as she followed him. Suddenly he stopped and she smacked into his back.

"There's a lil' cabin up there." He said and about a yard away she could see the small cabin through some trees. 

They made their way to the cabin, which wasn't very big at all. There were no walkers around and the inside was clear. It was nice, a small bathroom off to the side, a little kitchen area, a couch and a bed covered with a sheet. The cabin had long abandoned, a layer of dust covering every surface. Jess pulled the sheet off of the couch and sat down sideways with her leg folded under her and Daryl sat down next to her.

"It's nice out here," She said quietly, her arm rested against the back of the couch gently running her fingertips along his neck. 

Daryl stood up grabbing her hand and pulling her up with him. He grabbed a pillow off the bed and laid it on the couch, gesturing for her to lay on the couch before he laid down beside her. She loved being so close to him like this, she buried her face in his neck and breathed in deeply before pressing a kiss there. 

She felt his pulse quicker under her lips and kept kissing along his neck, over his jaw before finally kissing his lips. The two just laid there kissing lazily for a while. It was so rare, so, so rare that they got time together alone like this. He was either always out hunting or she was doing something to help the group and when they were together it was never like this, they never had downtime. It was nice. They decide to keep this cabin a secret, for now, using it as a getaway to be with each other. 

"Do ya know why dad changed his mind on bringing Shane instead of you on the Randall trip?" Jess asked as they were walking back to the farm later that afternoon. 

"I guess he realized I ain't second-hand man material." He said looking forward and Jess frowned.

"What? No that's not even close, Dare." She said grabbing his hand and he was silent.

"Well, then why?" He asked after a moment.

"Moms pregnant. Shane thinks it's his, I do too honestly but he's been harassing mom about it. Said dad isn't fit to be a leader, thinks mom and Carl should be his family." She explained with a frown. "That's why he's bringing Shane, needs to have a talk with him." 

"Never liked Shane," Daryl said after a moment, making her smile a little.

"Yeah, me neither." She laughed.


End file.
